Raven's Wing
by MarsLover
Summary: Riddick thinks Kyra is dead, the mercs are finally off his tail, and he can go on with what little of a life he has left. Two out of three ain't bad, because Raven has no intention of letting him go on without her. *FINAL CHAPTER UP*
1. Summary

Tester for Possible Story

Title: Raven's Wing

Rating: Unsure, probably T for swearing, violence, little sexuality

Characters: Riddick, OC (3 of them), Jack/ Kyra in memory

Summary: It has been two years since Riddick ascended to the throne, two years since he refused it and walked away, two years since he buried the only real friend he'd ever had. Riddick thinks he'll be able to live the rest of his life alone in peace and torment, but then another character appears. A young girl with long black hair who bears a startling resemblance to Kyra tracks Riddick down. She tells him an unbelievable story that at first he can't believe, but when she proves its truth, the two are stuck with each other. The girl stays with him out of responsibility and fascination, and Riddick lets her because he wishes to honor one of the last requests made by his friend.

What happens when she is kidnapped, and Riddick feels history repeating itself?

Ever since I saw the COR movies, I've had this idea floating around in my head. I figure it won't get out unless I write it down somewhere, so what better place than a fanfiction site? I'm not really writing this for reviews, it's more just to help me hone my writing skills and see what I can do with this story. However, please review if you wish to. I may not finish this, as once again it's only to help me become a better writer, but I have a feeling I will though I've got two other stories I'm working on. Well, read on if you wish...


	2. Chapter 1

_First chapter up. I don't own any part of the Riddick movies, the only thing I own are my 3 other characters and the main idea for this story._

Riddick swore, his silver-shined eyes snapping open and his right hand clamping around the shiv he slept with. At first he listened, not moving and not breathing out of sync with how he had been in his sleep, waiting for whoever was hiding in the shadows to make a mistake first.

Then he realized he hadn't woken up because he'd heard someone sneaking up on him. He'd woken up because he'd been having that nightmare again.

Riddick hadn't dreamed in a long while, since before they crashed on that godforsaken M6-117 planet. He'd started to again after… well, after Kyra died. Or Jack… Kyra? Riddick still wasn't sure what to call her. She had changed her name to Kyra as a way to forget all the things that had happened to her when she was younger, but Riddick felt that he would always know her as Jack. Well, whoever the hell she was, she was dead. Lying cold and lifeless, buried about five feet in the dirt for near on two years now. Riddick had never properly mourned over her; he'd simply taken her in his arms and walked out of the Necromongers' ship, refusing to be their king. He'd buried her in New Mecca, the last place where she had been even remotely happy. He thought that was as good as any. Maybe that was why he was having nightmares about her now.

Sighing and rubbing his tired, itching eyes, Riddick sat up in the bed he was sleeping in for that night. He'd rented the room at an inn on one of the Scorpio system planets. Ever since he'd basically stopped the Necromongers from taking Helion Prime, mercs everywhere had joined forces with cops to try and bring them down completely. Which meant Riddick was as free as he could be. He hadn't had to worry about getting caught or tracked in a long time, as he was no longer Number One on their radar. They had recently started sending out pamphlets and flyers, asking people to come and volunteer for the army they were building up. Riddick had had one shoved into his hands one night when he was walking around a town of some planet, and after reading it over, he had handed it to a little boy who had been passing with his mother, chuckling a little when the kid started begging mommy to let him go join the army.

He chuckled again thinking about it, rising to his feet and letting the sheets he'd been sleeping under fall to the floor. There was a large window that he found himself facing, and he saw the budding lights in the city. The cities of the universe were starting to rebuild. True, they had next to no manpower and the damage from the Necromonger invasion was severe, but they were doing it. If Aereon thought Furyans were defiant and stubborn, she should see the other races. Now _that_ was defiant. Once more, Riddick rubbed his eyes with his free hand, scratching an itch on his back with the shiv. He looked over to the mirror in the front of the room, blinking when he saw himself reflected in the glass and the ghostly shine of his two eyes. Even after over a decade of those eyes, sometimes they still surprised him.

Riddick blinked again and turned back to the bed, hoping he could get some rest. He had a long journey starting tomorrow, heading out to some distant little planet in a system he couldn't remember the name of. All he knew was that it was almost void of life (human life, anyway) and that it was the perfect place to forget about everything he'd done. He had to forget about them. About Carolyn dying for him even after she said she wouldn't, Imam selling him out to mercs so he could come back to Helion Prime, and Kyra dying.

All of it was meant to save him.

Fucking idiots.

**_One year and nine months earlier_**

She was late again. The girl raced through the newly destroyed streets of New Mecca, holding onto her messenger bag for dear life as pick pockets were rampant, especially now. She side-stepped people in her way, using her slight, thin frame to slip through openings in the jostling crowd that other people would've missed or been unable to take. It was a gift and a curse; she could easily evade someone trying to chase her down, but if they caught her she was done for, as she wasn't one of those girls who can have a fashion model body with hidden strength. Her lanky limbs weren't hiding any secret muscles, they were all skin and bone. She wouldn't be able to fight to save her life.

It wasn't long before her nearly destroyed house came into view. It used to be large and glamorous, seeing as it belonged to one of the richest families in New Mecca, but now the Necromongers were here it had practically been bulldozed. The entire second floor was gone and the wall on the west side was half crumbled away, revealing the remains of their living room. Her mother had tried hanging curtains over the blown out walls and windows, but either they'd be destroyed by weather or stolen by thieves, so they had given up on that. The girl pushed a strand of black hair from her intense green eyes, waving as happily as she could at her father. He was in the back, trying to rebuild the wall and failing miserably. Ignoring the weakness and exhaustion in the wave he returned, she banged through the front door, calling out to her mother that she was home.

Her mother, beautiful and kind, poked her head from around the corner, smiling in greeting.

"Hey, honey. You have a letter on the table. No return address, but that usually means it's from a secret admirer." Her mother joked, winking when she rolled her eyes. Even with the Necromongers invading, her mother still had the reserve to joke about love. The girl dropped her bag and walked to the table, picking up the letter.

The envelope was crinkled and dirty, as if it had traveled a long way or just hadn't been treated properly. Her name, Raven Kale, was written in scrawling script on the back, and just as her mother said there was no return address. Raven shrugged, opening the envelope with her finger and pulling out the folded up piece of paper inside it. There were only three words on it: She is dead.

Raven dropped the letter and sunk down to the ground, her hand over her face as tears spilled over her eyelids. She tried not to make any sound, but her mother had bat hearing and instantly came running out to her.

"Baby, what happened?" Her mother reached out for the paper, but before she could even come close to it Raven had grabbed it and raced out of the house, taking her messenger bag with her. People stared at her and reached out helping hands when she fell, but Raven pushed them all aside. The tears burned in her throat and down her cheeks, but she kept running.

She was dead? It couldn't be. She couldn't be dead, she had been so sure she'd come back alive. So sure that she'd even promised her.

"Oh, my God. Kyra… Jack." Her words trailed off as she came to a halt. Her breath stung and she was still crying. People started yelling at her to get moving, someone groped her as they passed, but Raven wasn't aware of any of it. As it finally hit her completely, she covered her face with her shaking hands and released an earth-shattering shriek that might have reminded Kyra of the sound the bioraptors made on that planet.

_Again, this story is only to help me get better at writing. If anybody wants to comment or flame me or anything, go ahead. You're more than welcome to if you like. This chapter was only to introduce the main characters, so it was kind of boring anyway._


	3. Chapter 2

"Exit visa, sir." said the young man, holding out his hand and smiling congenially. Riddick stared directly at him through his goggles, slapping the little book in the man's open palm. The strength and force of it sent the man's hand shooting downwards, causing him to wince in pain and look cautiously up at Riddick. Riddick didn't return the man's anxious smile as he swiped the exit visa through the reader, quickly handing it back to him as the machine spoke his name out loud and showed his picture.

"Richard B. Riddick, validated. Proceed to boarding dock." the machine said in a monotonous female voice. Riddick jerked his exit visa back from the man, stuffing it back into his bag and walking away towards the left. He swung his large rucksack over his shoulder and pushed his way through the crowd, ignoring the interested stares he received from the women and the jealous glares shot towards him from the men. Little children either stared open-mouthed at him as he passed or burst into tears, something that made Riddick's mouth twitch ever so slightly in a smile. He got these reactions everywhere from everyone. He was used to it by now.

It wasn't long before he located his ship. He didn't know its name and didn't care to, he had recognized it by its identification number anyway. Riddick stood in line, waiting patiently to get to the front and board. With nothing much to do while waiting, he started thinking about the planet he was going to. Everyone else on the ship was getting off at one of the other stops along the way, but he was going the full ride to the very last planet before the ship turned around and went back. It was some little planet with only one moon in a galaxy very far from here, so Riddick would be in cryosleep from an amazing, almost dangerous amount of time.

Not that danger bothered him much, after all these years of running and watching the people he let get too close die for him. In fact, he might even welcome the possible death from being in cryosleep that long.

The line was moving at a reasonable pace for several minutes, the people having their exit visas stamped for passage and climbing onto the ship, choosing cryosleep chambers. Riddick was almost to the front when he realized this was the first time since he was a teenager that he'd boarded a ship legally, not with chains around his neck, and not planning to 'borrow' it. It brought back a memory of when he was twelve, getting on a ship with the other orphans to be transported to another orphanage since the one they had lived at was getting too full. It wasn't the pleasantest memory, but it was one of few he had of his childhood, so he allowed it to come back…

Then, he and about fifty other orphans were being moved to another home, as the one they were living in had gotten too full. Riddick was with Ben, his best and for some time last friend. Ben was placed in a cryosleep chamber directly across from him, and if Riddick looked he could see his friend waving sleepily at him before his head lolled onto his shoulder and he passed out. Then, they had been woken up two weeks before they were supposed to be. At first the kids thought they were making a pit stop and they'd be allowed to walk around a little. They were very, very wrong. The crew taking them to the new orphanage were mercs in disguise, and they had decided to lessen their load. They sold half the kids into slavery, Ben among them. That was the day Riddick had first known true hatred for another person. He had begrudged his father for leaving his mother, and he had blamed his mother for trying to strangle him with his own birth cord, but this was true, burning hatred. That day Riddick had seen little girls get dragged off to be the newest addition to a harem and boys younger than him sold out as hard laborers. He remembered how Kyra had asked him once if he knew what being slaved out could do to a young child, and he had merely yelled at her about disobeying his order to stay in New Mecca.

He never told her that he had every idea what that could do a 12-year-old. He had thought it would be going too deep for the both of them. Looking back now, and thinking about it… if he had known she'd be dead in only a few days, he probably would've told her. Just so she could understand why he had a soft spot for her and none other: because they were so alike, both of them with childhoods they would rather not revisit and lives hardened and mutilated by the universe.

But it was too late for that. She was dead, and he had to move on. So, he did. He handed his exit visa to the guard standing at the entrance to the ship, showing no response as the man stamped his visa and gave him permission to board as well. Riddick walked into the ship, looking around and just barely missing stepping on the foot of a little kid standing near him. The kid, startled, ran off and wrapped his arms around the legs of his mother, letting Riddick throw his bag into the luggage hold with the others and jump into a cryosleep chamber. The fit was tight, and it was just barely tall enough to fit him, but he managed to squeeze himself in. Now that he was on, Riddick crossed his arms, leaned his head back, and relaxed, waiting for the doors to slide closed and the cryosleep to activate.

_**Meanwhile:**_

Raven had to fight against swearing loudly when someone dropped their bag directly on her head. It landed on her with a thunk, making pain explode in her head and her eyes get black spots in front of them. She clamped her hands down on the throbbing part of her body, fighting to not cry.

"Kyra wouldn't cry," she whispered to herself, "Kyra never cried. Don't you dare start now." Taking deep breaths to get herself back together, Raven tucked a strand of curling black hair behind her ear and searched for the bag that had fallen on her. If she couldn't cry about it, the least she could do was go through the person's stuff so she knew who to thank for her bruise. She searched in the dim light of the luggage hold for the gray colored rucksack that had landed on her, and upon finding it she grinned in a wicked sort of triumph.

"Now, let's see what kind of jerk this guy is." she mumbled again, propping the bag on her knee and unzipping it. There was a change of clothes, a pair of heavy black combat boots, a razor for shaving, a toothbrush, and… about five shivs, two guns, rounds for said guns, and a pair of black goggles. Raven lifted an eyebrow as she pulled out one of the guns, observing it from every angle. This wasn't one of those guns used by the cops or even by mercs. This seemed like one of those special guns, the ones that packed extra punch and could take out multiple guys at once.

Like the Necromonger guns.

Raven dropped the gun back into the bag and quickly zipped it up, throwing it away from her when she realized where she had seen those kinds of guns before. Those were the same guns that had pointed at her when the Necromongers took over New Mecca, the same guns that killed her friends and neighbors when they refused to convert, the same guns that had haunted her dreams since she first saw them. Was this guy a Necromonger in disguise? Was he one of their supporters? If he wasn't, why the hell did he have one of their custom-made weapons?

The curiosity that Kyra had so often warned her against rose up in her gut, and Raven had to answer to it. She crept over towards the bag, dropping to her knees and taking it in her hands. She looked it over, searching for a name or a picture I.D, or something to let her know what kind of sick idiot this guy was. When she saw some writing on a corner of the bag, she flipped it over and squinted through the darkness to make it out. It said R.B.R. Who the hell was R.B.R? Raven looked up, her brow furrowing as she thought.

"R.B.R. Who could have those initials? R.B… R.B.R. R.B.R! Richard B. Riddick!" she gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth as her green eyes went wide. This was his bag, she was holding Riddick's bag! Slowly, Raven set the bag down as gently as she could, almost lovingly. She rose to her feet again and looked up to the small square of light that led from the luggage hold to the passenger cabin. She put her hands on her hips, releasing a sigh and smiling.

"So, I found you, Riddick. I finally found you." Raven felt a tear roll down her cheek, not in fear but in pure happiness. She quickly wiped it away when she heard the doors close, scrambling over to the wall and climbing up the ladder that would take her to the passenger cabin. She slipped out of the luggage hold and hid in a dark corner of the cabin, watching carefully as one of the crew members slammed the door to the hold closed and looked around. He gave out some basic rules and information to the passengers, then turned and went over to a small electronic pad on the wall. With his back turned to her, Raven silently slipped into the last empty cryosleep chamber just before the shield closed over it and the sleeping agent took effect on her.

_Hey, author speaking. Um... I just wanted to say thank you. Thanks to the people who reviewed my story and to those who put it on their alerts. I didn't ask for you to do it, but you did it anyway. That surprises me, and tells me that not only do I apparently have talent, but you all are very considerate people. Thanks._

_Next chapter might not be up for a while (my school starts next week), but it definitely will be more interesting._


	4. Chapter 3

_Author speaking. Yeah, I know I said this wouldn't be up for a while, but I was hit with sudden inspiration last night and I had to get everything down and updated before i forgot it. _ _To those reading, enjoy_.

Six months can fly by in cryosleep. Raven's green eyes fluttered open as the sleeping agent was sucked out of her chamber, leaving her with regular oxygen to breathe. At first she needed to remember where she was going, why she was going there, and why she was standing up. However, when the door to her chamber slid open and she stumbled out, a quick shake of her head brought it all back. She'd forgotten how disoriented cryosleep could make you, too. Raven was holding onto the side of her chamber with both hands, her knees weak and her head spinning, when she saw the only other occupied chamber open and the door leading to the cockpit unlock.

"Shit." she mumbled, shooting around and hiding herself as far as she could into the shadows. This was the last stop, and the docking pilot would have just scanned the passenger cabin. They would've expected to see a total of one cryosleep chambers occupied, but with Raven they would have found two. She was a stowaway, and she'd heard more than enough rumors about what was done with stowaways on commercial ships. Someone in her high school had told her that they were given to mercs to deal with. An article in a tabloid spoke about them being kept on as indentured servants, working on the ship until they had paid off the debt they owed. And once, whispered to her by a friend, she heard that they were simply dropped off at the nearest planet, and whether they lived or died was no one's responsibility but theirs.

Frankly, Raven didn't want to test any of those theories.

"What the hell are you doing, Craig? We need to prep the ship for docking." a man's voice said. Another man, the one who was walking forward, grunted.

"Yeah, yeah, one minute Captain Little." the tone in his voice suggested that he was not really listening. He came closer to her hiding place, so Raven started sneaking backwards even more.

"Did you not hear me? I said prep this damn ship for docking, now!" The captain was obviously upset now. Raven heard coughing from a third person; Riddick.

"He's looking for something, Captain." he said, his deep baritone voice sending vibrations through her chest.

"What?"

"He's right. The scanner said there were two occupied cryosleep chambers back here, but we only have one more registered passenger. There's a damn stowaway on this ship, and by God, I'm gonna find him!"

"Her."

This time both men responded, "What?"

"The stowaway. It's a her. I have a habit of attracting runaway girls." Riddick said, sounding quite calm and uncaring about the whole thing, even chuckling in amusement when he said the last sentence. Raven closed her eyes in mortification; how could she have been so stupid?! This was the same stunt Kyra pulled seven years ago, only she'd had the sense to dress up like a guy and had managed to fool everyone for a while. Riddick must have seen her through the darkness, what with those damn eyes of his. Raven felt like she could've slapped herself.

"A girl?" Craig said, the surprise in his voice apparent. He laughed darkly, "That makes it much more interesting. Unless you want her for yourself, big guy." His intent made Raven begin to panic. He wouldn't do that if they found her… No, the captain would never allow it… Would he? She heard Riddick cross his arms.

"I'm not into little girls." he said bluntly. Raven's fear disappeared a little as indignation rose up; _little girl_? She was not a child, she was a fully grown woman, already 19 years old! True, she wasn't exactly wise with age, but she wasn't an immature kid either!

"So you don't wanna stake any claim on her? Okay, then, more for me!" Craig smiled, clapping his hands together. Raven began to sweat.

"Keep you dick in your pants until we land, Craig," hissed the captain, "At least get this rig on the ground before you start looking for a screw." With that said, the two crew members turned and left the room, the doors automatically sliding closed on them. Raven and Riddick were alone. She heard him pause for a minute and turn half-around to look at her, and Raven thought that, for just a second, their eyes had met. Then he turned away and went to get his bag from the luggage hold.

Even though this was what Kyra had asked of her, Raven didn't want to reveal herself to him just yet. She wasn't ready to face him. So, leaning her head back, she sunk down and sat on the floor, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms tight around them. She stayed that way, jumping as she heard the wings switch positions to prepare for the descent, her teeth chattering as they worked their way through the atmosphere, and the loud bang assaulting her ears as they finally landed on the planet.

"Destination, reached. Please move in an orderly fashion to the exit on the left hand side of the cabin. We hope you enjoyed your journey, and that you will come again. Have a nice stay on Alpha Prime, in the Kyklos Galaxy!" said the automated female voice as the doors opened and sunlight spilled into the ship. Raven slowly and cautiously glanced around the corner, and she caught a half a second of Riddick disembarking from the ship. What she saw sent shivers up her spine; so, this was the man that had saved Kyra's life, the man who had imprinted himself forever on her heart.

He fascinated her.

Her fascination, however, turned out to be her biggest mistake. She was so focused on watching Riddick leave that she hadn't noticed the man Craig coming through the door. She didn't notice when he saw her, and she didn't notice when he slowly advanced on her. It was only when he grabbed her hair and dragged her out from her hiding place that she realized what was happening. He was dragging her along the floor by her hair, ignoring her gasps of pain and her nails scratching at his wrist. Where was the captain, wouldn't he stop this? Wouldn't he save her?

Wouldn't anybody save her?

Craig dragged her down the ramp and into the bright sunlight. At first Raven wondered why no one was exclaiming over this, but when she cracked open her eyes she saw that no one was reacting because there was no one around. She'd forgotten that this planet was nearly deserted. They were completely alone on the planet, their ship the only one in the dock. Suddenly, Craig stopped, releasing her. Raven hoped he had changed his mind, but she realized she was wrong when he lunged on top of her, tearing at her shirt and trying to make her kiss him. Realizing that she had to do _something_, Raven jerked her head away from him, opened her mouth, and released a series of shrieks that spoke of all the terror in her.

…

Riddick stopped when he heard screaming. It was a primal, animalistic sound, like the kind you heard animals making when they were fighting or about to die. At first he thought that was what it was, but when he looked behind him he saw it was actually coming from the stowaway girl. She was on the ground, the docking pilot on top of her and obviously trying to violate her. She saw him, her eyes going wide with hope.

"Help me! Please, for the love of God, help me!" she screamed, flinging out one hand towards him. Riddick paused a moment, considering it, but then the stone-hearted side of him took over, and he turned away. He heard her screams for help grow louder and more desperate as he walked away, his rucksack slung over his shoulder again. But he had learned the hard way that the best way to stay out of trouble was to not involve yourself with other's problems. She didn't want to have sex with the guy; she could fight him off herself. It was not his problem.

And then he thought of her. Of Kyra. She had been raped and abused by mercs when she was twelve. Had she screamed like that when it happened? Had she hoped that maybe, just maybe, he would come at the last minute and save her? Had she screamed for him, dreamed about him coming to her rescue? Her face burst clearly into his mind; not the cruel, hardened Kyra, but the soft features of young Jack. She had idolized him, made him her hero, and he had failed her when she needed him most. Jesus, she had even shaved her head and stolen his extra pair of goggles to look like him! Would he be able to walk away if it was her about to be raped, and not that other girl he didn't know? Riddick sighed, shaking his head in a little bit of shame.

"Damn it, Kyra," he muttered to himself, "You've gone and made me soft." With a yell, Riddick dropped his bag, unsheathed his shiv, and flew back to the couple on the ground. Without wasting a second, he buried the blade in the man's back, blood spurting onto his shirt and onto the girl's face. At first it was like Craig didn't notice, as he continued laughing and ripping at the girl's clothing. Then, he stopped, and with a groan of pain he rolled off of her and collapsed on the ground. Riddick jerked the blade out of him as the captain came running out of the ship, staring in shock at the scene before him.

"What the hell…? You killed one of my crew! That's a federal offense, I'm taking you under arrest!" The older man approached him, but Riddick pressed the bloody knife against his throat. The gray-haired man raised his chin, holding up his hands and staring at Riddick in fear.

"Your man was attacking the girl. She needed help, I helped. That wound won't kill him if you give him proper treatment. Now, I suggest you take the son of a bitch back into your ship, fuel up, and get off this planet before I change my mind about getting more blood on my knife." His voice was very smooth and undisturbed, showing that he was dead serious and he had no problem killing two people that day. The captain glared but nodded, then lugged Craig over his shoulder and retreated back into the ship. With it all over, Riddick took a deep breath and put his shiv away, turning around and walking back to his discarded bag. Before he could, however, he felt a hand close around his ankle. Looking down, he saw the girl's tear-stained, dirty face gazing up at him. For a split second, her green eyes and dark hair made him think he was looking at Kyra.

"Thank you. Thank you so much." she whispered. Riddick stared at her for a minute, watching as she smiled weakly before jerking free of her hold and walking away. He was a damn softie, he was. Seven years ago he would've been able to leave that girl to her fate without thinking twice about it. Then Kyra, then known as Jack, had come along, and weaseled her way into his heart, innocent little brat that she was.

…

Raven watched him walk away for a few seconds, then blinked and snapped out of it. She had spent almost two years looking for this man; she was not about to lose him just as she found him! Wiping her eyes and nose, Raven scrambled to her feet and rushed after him as he disappeared into a forest of dead trees.

He moved quickly and stealthily, something she guessed he had picked up after being on the run for multiple murders for nearly a decade. While she was crashing through branches and snapping twigs trying to keep up with his retreating form, he walked serenely and silently through the tress, only making a small amount of noise that she couldn't even hear over her own. The sun, burning yellow overhead, made her hot and sweaty, but she couldn't stop. She had to keep track of him.

She got some relief when he entered a clearing, kneeling down and dipping his hands into a pool of water. She entered too, but didn't say anything. She knew he knew she was there, but she wanted to see what he would do. He looked cautiously at the water in his hands, smelling it and moving his hands a little to watch it ripple. He was about to swig it down when he grunted in pain and dropped it. He shook his hands around, and Raven was able to see that there were ugly red burn marks from the polluted water.

"What the hell kinda planet it this?" he asked quietly to no one in particular. Raven had read up about this planet before deciding to stowaway on the ship, so she took this opportunity to reveal herself. She stepped forward, crossing her arms over the red tank top she was wearing.

"They called it Earth. Well, at least they did before the people destroyed their atmosphere and poisoned their water supplies. They had to evacuate the entire planet, the refugees going out to all corners of the system, even out into the universe. It was so long ago and the people were so scattered around that most people think they don't exist anymore. Me? I think they might, but they've interbred with so many other races that there's barely any trace of them." She walked forward, nearly losing her nerve when Riddick turned and looked at her. She squared her shoulders, however, and continued on with what she was saying. When she was done, Riddick's hands were looking a little less red and he was still staring at her.

"Thanks for the history lesson. Now, go find mommy and daddy." Was what he responded with. He waved her away with his hand as if waving off a pesky fly before turning, stepping over the pool of diseased water and moving to re-enter the dead forest. Raven took another quick step forward.

"My mommy and daddy are dead." she said. Riddick turned to her again, this time obviously agitated.

"Then just go." he growled. Raven began to panic when he turned from her again. She had to keep him with her, she just had to!

"They're dead just like yours," she yelled. Riddick froze, and Raven smiled when she knew she had him, "Just like Kyra's." That was her mistake that ruined it all. Before she could register what he was doing, Riddick had shot back to her, wrapped his hand around her throat, and slammed her back into one of the dead trees. He pulled out his recently used knife and pressed it to her throat, watching in satisfaction as her pulse beat hard in her neck.

"Who the hell are you?" he hissed into her face. The girl's eyes were wide with fear again, but she was not going to let him scare her. She couldn't.

"Did… Did Kyra ever tell you about someone named Raven?" she asked, struggling to speak as his grip on her throat was cutting off her air.

"No."

"I'm not surprised. She said she wouldn't tell anyone about me to keep me safe." she muttered more to herself than to him. Her eyes drifted away from his, prompting Riddick to tighten the grip he had on her slender neck. He liked possible victims to look at him. She gasped and her eyes darted back to him, the sweat on her forehead dripping down her face. He turned the knife so that the point was sticking just a little into her skin, making her whimper. Then, suddenly, her green eyes turned hard.

"You know, I can't keep my promise to her if you kill me!" she hissed. Riddick's attention was caught. Promise?

"Your promise to Kyra?"

"Who else?" Her voice this time held attitude and annoyance, which made Riddick more agitated, which caused his grip to go even tighter. He dug the knife tip in too, so that a little bubble of blood came up and trickled down her neck. Her skin was beginning to pale and he could feel her thin legs shaking as the blood began to stop flowing. A couple minutes more and she'd be dead.

"What do you know about Kyra?" he asked of her, staring right into her eyes.

"I know everything about Kyra. I know everything about you, too, everything from the crash on M6-117 to now." For a second or two, Riddick was caught between two options; let her go and have her tell him what she knew, or kill her and move on like it had never happened. He sighed, growing very upset with himself.

"Who the hell are you?" he whispered again, letting her go and stepping back as she dropped to the ground. She clapped a hand over her cut and gasped for air, looking up at him with fierce green eyes.

"My name is Raven Kale," she coughed out, sitting up straight and leaning against the tree trunk, "Kyra was my sister. My fraternal, older-by-two-minutes twin sister."

_I know I said I wasn't writing this for reviews, but I'm afraid I've been spoiled by the ones I got. So... please review?_


	5. Chapter 4

_I recently learned that another author has a fic out that is somewhat similar to mine, where Kyra has a twin sister who is looking for Riddick and the two team up. To try and differentiate our two stories as much as possible, I've made major plot changes to my story. People are dying and coming back to life that I hadn't planned on, and people who I thought would be romantically linked now can't be.  
_

_Anyway, hope you all enjoy this. I worked hard to get it out tonight, like people were asking me to._

Raven saw no reaction from behind Riddick's black goggles. She didn't really know what she was expecting, but she was expecting something; yelling, laughing, hugging, even crying! With him just staring down at her as if he hadn't heard, Raven felt all the little hairs on the back of her neck and arms stand up as her body told her to beware. She was still on the dusty ground, her hand massaging her neck and trying to stop the small cut he'd given her from bleeding. Her black hair was knotted and sticking to her skin from sweat, as were her red tank top and tan capris. After about two minutes, she looked around and stood, brushing the dust off of her and leaning back against the tree. Riddick still didn't move.

"Well?" she said eventually, when the tension and anxiousness had reached its peak, "What do you have to say?" She shrugged her shoulders, giving him an expectant look. Riddick was quiet for a few more seconds, and Raven was beginning to think he'd gone momentarily deaf when he sighed audibly.

"Fuck." he muttered. Raven blinked; of all the things she'd been thinking he'd do, swearing under his breath was not one of them. From what Kyra and had told her, Riddick liked all action, no talk. So, why was he just standing there, looking at her and cussing?

"That's… that's all you can say?" she responded. Riddick lifted a hand to his head, rubbing his brow and holding the shiv limply. Like that, he looked exhausted and worn out. He looked like an old man. He turned slowly away from her, keeping his head in his hand and his feet dragging. Raven immediately followed.

"That's all you can say, when I've just told you that I'm Kyra's sister?" she repeated her question, cutting around in front of him and standing in his path. Riddick stopped and turned his head away from her, and Raven knew he was going to try to walk off again. Her patience ran out. She grabbed his arm and jerked him back with an amount of force that surprised both of them.

"Look at me!" she begged him, "Look at me; I'm Kyra's sister, her twin sister. You can see the resemblance in us, Riddick, I know you can. So… say something! I'm the last connection you have to her, do you really not care?" Her voice was tight with all the fear, worry, and uncertainty the last two years had filled her with. Kyra had told her; find Riddick, stay with him, once you tell him we're sisters he'll let you in. Well, she found the son of a bitch, but he didn't seem to give a crap about it! How could she have come this far only to be rejected? Raven had her face up in his, and though his head was towards her, she knew the reason he wasn't doing anything was because he hadn't truly looked at her. With his eyes hidden behind those goggles, he could hide the fact that he wasn't looking at her. Raven knew how to fix that. Reaching up, she grabbed the strap and jerked it off, revealing the eyes.

"Holy…" she muttered. Riddick had clapped a hand over his eyes while sucking in a breath from pain, but she'd been able to see their silvery sheen before then. Kyra had told her about the eyes, but Raven hadn't been expecting the cold dread that coursed through her when she saw them. Those eyes had seen so many people murdered. An unbidden thought, one that she didn't want, rose up; would those be the last eyes she would ever see before Riddick killed her, too?

"Give me my goddamn goggles back." he growled. He reached out a hand, and Raven quickly handed them back. The eyes were beautiful in a scary way, and she didn't want to feel them on her. It made her feel… exposed. Riddick slipped them back on, adjusted the strap, shoved her hard in the chest so that she went flying backwards onto the ground, and then stomped past her. Raven turned over onto her stomach, flipping a few strands of hair out of her eyes. She watched him walk past her and back over to where he'd dropped his bag, and quickly pushed herself to her feet with every intent to follow. She paused, though. He wasn't listening to her, and he seemed completely disinterested. What more could she possibly do to get his attention?

"I might as well hit you over the head with a boulder. You'll never listen to and understand what I'm saying." she murmured hopelessly under her breath, her head of heavy black hair hanging in defeat.

"You're too weak to hurt me, anyway, so I wont have to worry about that." he said, continuing to walk away after letting her know that he'd heard her. Raven was too surprised at his controlled, calm demeanor to feel insulted by the cut. She must have been annoying the hell out of him, so why wasn't he threatening her again? Most other people would be dead by this point, she was sure. Maybe it was because the revelation that she was Kyra's sister really had affected him? But if it had, why was he trying to get rid of her? Shouldn't he have been excited? Was everything she had heard and thought about this guy completely wrong? And why, for the love of God, was he provoking so many questions from her?! It was driving her nuts!

"Well, if you train me, I won't be so weak." she suddenly shouted after him, leading up to the whole point of why she had tracked him. Riddick continued walking.

"I thought I told you to leave." he responded back. Raven took off after him.

"Train me, and once we're through I will." she said again. Riddick kept moving forward, ignoring her efforts to keep pace with him.

"You don't want my life, kid. You can't handle it. The ship should still be docked, that man is too wounded to try anything with you, and the captain won't want a lawsuit, so you'll be safe for the journey back to wherever you came from." He was commanding her to go now.

"I never said I wanted your life. Trust me, Riddick, I have no interest in murdering people to get my way. I only want you to train me to protect myself, and then once I feel confident enough about it I'll leave you alone. I swear it." she explained to him from where she was behind him. Those words made Riddick stop, finally. He looked back at her, taking in her sweaty, dirty appearance, her breathlessness and her hope gleaming in her eyes. She looked like a smaller, weaker version of Kyra.

"What makes you think I'll train you?" he said. Raven smirked, knowing that he wouldn't have asked if he wasn't considering it. She walked forward, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Because it was the last thing Kyra asked me to do before she went looking for you. She asked me that, if anything happened to her, I would track you down, tell you about us, and have you train me so that I could protect myself. You know, since she wouldn't be around to do it." she said, moving around in front of him again. She knew by his silence that he was waiting for her to tell more. Raven took a deep breath, let it out, sat on a petrified log and rested her arms on her knees, getting comfortable for the long story that was her relationship with her sister.

"Her name was Audrey first. We lived together with our mom and dad on Isrealid Four, and our childhood was… unsatisfying. Our mother was a hype and our dad beat us whenever he had the opportunity, once he even paid off this guy to do it for him when he couldn't get home. They were always threatening us, saying that when we got bigger they'd sell us out to people, so Mom could have money for her drugs and stuff. When we hit twelve, and got our periods, we realized that that was what they had meant by 'when we got bigger'. We decided we weren't going to let them do that to us, so we ran away.

"We knew that our parents, no matter how much they hated us, would do anything to get us back, so we had to go separate ways for a while. We figured, better they have only one of us than both of us. Audrey wanted me to take the direct route to New Mecca, and though I fought her on it, I agreed. She decided to take the longer one by changing ships at a port in another system, and for protection she chopped off her hair and changed her name to Jack. After she put me on the direct flight to New Mecca, I heard nothing from her." Raven stopped when her voice cracked and her eyes began to burn. No matter how much she tried to tell herself she couldn't, she had to cry whenever she thought about this. If they had only stuck together, maybe she'd still be alive. Without her realizing it, Riddick had leaned leisurely against a tree and started listening intently to her words.

'Yep, she's weak,' he thought to himself as he watched a tear slip from her eye, 'Or maybe, since she can mourn openly… maybe she's stronger.'

"Anyway," Raven said after digging the heels of her palms into her eyes, angrily trying to stop the tears, "I knew she'd be a couple months behind me, so I waited for her. Not for very long though, because only a few weeks after I landed, I heard on the news that a ship had crashed on some deserted planet, and there were no survivors. They read off the names of the passengers and crew, and when I heard her name I was so angry at her for leaving me that I passed out. When I woke up I was in a big comfy bed, all washed and with this couple taking care of me. They had found me and taken me to their home, and they wanted to adopt me. I thought she was dead, so I let them. My name went from Aria Forth to Raven Kale, and Audrey became a part of my past.

"Until she showed up out of nowhere with a shaved head and black goggles, telling me all these absurd stories of a planet with three suns and only one month of darkness every 22 years, at which point these giant dinosaur-like things came out and ate whatever meat they came across. I thought she was crazy, that the crash had knocked her brains loose, but then she told me about you and Imam, and how Carolyn Fry had died for all of you. She told me about that Chillingsworth woman who turned convicts she captured into living statuary. I believed her after that one; that's a type of crazy you can't make up.

"During the next few months we had together we agreed to keep each other secret from our respective families. It was almost like nothing in our pasts had ever happened. Then, of course, she came to me one day and said that she was going after you. I tried my hardest to dissuade her from it. I mean, I'd already lost her once, I didn't think I'd survive if I lost her again! But she was adamant about finding you. She… thought she loved you. When I realized there was nothing I could do to make her stay, I made her promise to come back alive, and she made me promise that if she didn't, I'd find you and make you train me so I could defend myself.

"Obviously, the first promise was broken and put the second in motion. I've spent two years following you, Riddick, trying to keep my promise to my sister in mind and trying to tell myself that you would do it, that you would teach me how to fight once you knew it was what Kyra wanted. So, are you going to?" She finished. There, it was all out in the open, everything that happened between her and Kyra. She was a little short of breath from telling it, and hopefully she looked up at the mountain of a man her sister had thought she'd fallen in love with. He said nothing.

"Please?" she added on quickly. Once again, nothing for several seconds

"How do I know you're not lying?" he finally responded. Raven blinked and laughed a little at the words.

"W- What? You think I'm lying to you?" she gasped. Riddick shrugged.

"You could be a merc in disguise. God knows, the fuckers get younger every year."

"Are you crazy? Do I look like I'm a merc to you?" she shouted, jumping up and waving her hands at him. Riddick stepped up to her and bent his head towards her.

"Honey, I don't know what you are, but I'll tell you one thing: I don't think you're Kyra's sister."

"Why?" Raven asked, giving him a challenging look, "Why can't you believe we're sisters?"

"Because Kyra would've never done half the things you've done. She never would've begged me like a weak little kid like that. She would've attacked me outright." he answered, giving an example that flabbergasted Raven.

"Of course I didn't outright attack you! I'm not an idiot, Riddick, don't you think I know you'd be able to take me down in a second?" she responded angrily. Riddick continued to stare at and criticize her.

"Kyra, as you probably know, would've had the sense to disguise herself as a guy so men wouldn't mess with her. You just assumed they'd leave you alone."

"Why would they want to mess with me, anyway?" Raven feebly argued back.

"That's another thing; Kyra knew she was attractive, and she knew how to use it when it would be at her advantage and how to hide it when it would endanger her. You seem oblivious to it." His remark made Raven blink, especially when she realized he had emphasized his point by stepping closer to her. Raven's defiance vanished as she looked at him warily. She noticed how close their chests were, and how she could feel his body heat emanating from him. She could see the little sweat droplets dripping from his chin and goggles, and she felt her heart start pounding when his lips twitched in a provocative smirk.

'Oh, wow,' she thought to herself as her eyes gazed cautiously up at him. She wondered how she hadn't noticed before, but Riddick… he wasn't that bad looking. He was… attractive, and- and pleasant to look at and… Oh, who the hell was she kidding, he was hot! There, she admitted it. She was attracted to him.

When his muscled arm rose up, however, as if to wrap around her shoulders, Raven panicked. She took the opportunity of his raised arm and ducked under the limb, dashing away from him but not turning her back on him for a second. She may have liked his physical appearance, but she certainly didn't know him well enough to trust him like that. Besides, she was still on edge from her encounter with Craig the pervert. The last thing Raven needed was physical proximity with a man. In her rush to avoid Riddick, Raven had fallen into a crouching position, on her knees and her hands placed so she looked something like an animal ready to run or pounce. Riddick laughed as he turned around to face her, crossing his arms and leaning causally against a tree.

"You're not afraid of me, are you, kid?" he asked, obviously amused. Raven blinked, her jaw dropping when she realized he'd been messing with her the whole time. Her pride, the one true fault she thought she had, rose to defend itself. Raven pushed herself to her feet, her carefully hidden and controlled anger starting to boil.

"No way." she retorted, giving Riddick the best hard-ass look she could muster. He continued chuckling at her, but Raven pushed it aside for the need to know his answer, "Look, are you gonna train me or not? As a woman in this day and age, I need it. And it is what Kyra wanted." Once again, she appealed to Kyra. Raven had known from the start her sister would probably be Riddick's one weakness, and she was not above exploiting it on him.

"Well, you know how to evade capture, if only for a little while. I'll give you that much." he responded.

"That's not an answer, and if you train me I'll get even better." Raven said, giving him a look. Riddick said nothing in response, walking forward and looking her up and down instead. Raven felt her face burn as his eyes raked over every part of her body, analyzing and studying her. Riddick was trying to make her uncomfortable, she knew. Raven was starting to think he'd been testing her since she first spoke to him in the clearing. Well, she had no intentions of failing.

"Answer my damn question, Riddick!" she growled. Riddick said nothing, but instead darted around behind her and slapped her on the backside. Raven's rarely seen temper flared, and her fist flew back in response to the invasion of personal space. Riddick leaned out of reach, still smiling as her fist completely missed him.

"Why should I answer you?"

"Because, I need you to train me! This is the last promise I made to Kyra, and I'll be damned if I don't keep it. Trust me, Riddick; if there's one thing my sister and I have in common, it's that we don't stop until we get what we want!" she shouted, her face now red from anger more than embarrassment. Her fists were clenched and she could feel a vein in her temple popping. Raven couldn't remember the last time someone had made her so furious. It only added to her anger that Riddick was, once again, standing quietly by, watching her scream at him and showing no emotional reaction to what she'd said. The silence hung between them for so long that Raven had actually started considering taking his advice and just going back, but then he walked over to his bag, brought it back to her, dropped it at her feet and pointed.

"Carry this for me?" It wasn't so much a question as it was a command, one that Raven found herself eagerly accepting. This was like his way of saying she could come with him, and he would do as she asked. That in and of itself made her ecstatic enough to do anything for him. She picked up the bag and slung it over her shoulder as she'd seen him do, grinning when he motioned for her to follow. He was going to do it; he was actually going to train her! Raven knew it would be hard and she knew that she would most likely get hurt, badly, but nevertheless she was looking forward to it.

She only hoped he wouldn't drive her insane first.

_I'm sorry if this all seems to be moving very slowly, but I need everything to be explained and understood before I even think about getting into the main plot, because of the changes. Anyway, review if you wish. Flames, too, I accept everybody's opinions._


	6. Chapter 5

"Get up." Riddick said forcefully, dropping her messenger bag on top of her. The girl lying on the ground grunted as the bag landed on her, but otherwise didn't move. Riddick rolled his eyes behind his goggles. He'd told her the night before that she was too heavy a sleeper; if she wanted to be able to defend herself in any situation, she'd have to learn to keep one eye open and one ear listening while she slept.

"Raven," he shouted her name, finally jerking her awake and into an upright position, "Get up!" Her black hair was flung over her face and fluttering as she breathed in and out, her green eyes glaring at him from in between the strands. She grabbed her messenger bag angrily, kicking into a standing position and flipping her hair back.

"What are you, bionic? Don't you ever sleep?" she grumbled when he had turned his back. Riddick smiled a little. She was fiercer when she was tired; he'd have to make sure she didn't sleep as often as she wanted to. He heard her turn angrily around, taking a deep breath as if to start a screaming match, but instead she held the breath in for a few seconds and then released it. She had been calming herself down, keeping control of her anger at him. It was new to Riddick, having someone around who refused to get mad at him. He'd have to work at getting used to it.

"Are we eating today?" she asked suddenly, and Riddick looked back at her in time to hear her stomach growl loudly. Riddick was hungry, too, but he had learned to deal with it. He shrugged at her in response, seeing her shoulders slump in disappointment.

"Are you sure? We can't even pick some berries or something?" she begged as her stomach voiced it's annoyance at being ignored again.

"If you can lead me to a living plant on this rock, sure." he said, turning away again. Raven was silent after that (at least her mouth was), obeying when he told her to hide their tracks and follow him. She had her bag slung over her shoulder the whole time, working to erase the footprints with one hand while the other clutched it safely to her side. Since they'd started out towards the north, she hadn't let that bag out of her sight. It was obviously important to her, but she didn't seem interested in sharing and so Riddick had no interest in knowing. He just categorized it as another mystery about her.

They walked again. He didn't truly know where it was he was headed, he just knew he wanted to keep moving. Half of him was hoping they'd steer clear of all human life that may be still living here, but another half of him, the half that had been reawakened by Carolyn's sacrifice on M6-117, hoped they would. He could dump Raven with them, take some food and other provisions in return, and then be on his way.

"My God, you're like a rocket! Hold up, would you?" Raven shouted from behind him immediately after he began fantasizing about a life without her. He gritted his teeth; if getting rid of her was even possible, he would do it in an instant. He didn't stop or slow down, ignoring her instead. He heard her grunting and panting with her efforts to carry both of their bags and still follow him.

"Hey, I said wait up! Stop for a second, damn it!" she yelled again. Riddick shrugged, starting to have a little fun.

"You wanted to come with me. If you can't keep up, go back. You'll just die." he replied, using almost the same words he'd used when leading the convicts from the Crematoria prison. And, just like those convicts, Raven squared her shoulders and lifted her chin defiantly.

"I can keep up." she declared proudly. That made Riddick stop, turn back to her and tilt his head curiously.

"The two women before you said the same thing, and it got both of them killed. I find that very interesting," he stated. He saw her gulp, but she stood her ground. She was stubborn, just like her sister. Okay, one point for similarities.

Blinking, Riddick jerked his head forward, motioning for her to follow again. Raven sprang into action like an overeager puppy, sticking as close to him as she could and trying to mimic his silent way of walking. He was slashing through branches and brambles in their way with his shiv, kicking aside large rocks and clearing a path. Raven considered thanking him, but he'd probably just ignore her again, so she figured what was the point? The only thing he was teaching her so far was to be a pack animal, and unless it was to develop arm and back strength she couldn't think of anyway that would help her. What was there to thank him for? Raven angrily flipped some hair off her shoulder, her head turning a little towards the left. Her eyes picked up the regular dead trees, destroyed by the ruined atmosphere and water, and… something else.

She pulled to a halt, looking back over to her left and squinting to see through the trees. Riddick didn't notice, and if he did he didn't care, and kept going. Raven was focusing on trying to see what that thing was. It was far back in the woods, almost the same dried brown color of the trees but visible because of its different pattern. She turned her head a little, watching as the thing shifted and more of it came into view. She saw what looked like pillars. Maybe it was an old temple or something?

"Hey, kid," Riddick shouted from way in front, his voice a little distant, "I thought you could keep up." Raven didn't respond. Her palms had started to sweat and she felt relief and excitement rise up in her gut. She'd turned her head another way and seen a door. That was no temple; it was a house, and with any luck someone was living there!

"Riddick!" she finally screeched, looking back and seeing the path he'd cleared, "Riddick, come back! I found a house!" she announced happily, grinning when he reappeared. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could Raven had shoved the bags into his arms and raced off through the trees, laughing happily at the thought of shelter from the frigid nights and, possibly, food.

Riddick paused. He could leave her. Just let her run off stupidly into the woods as she was and continue on without her. God knows, it would make his journey a hell of a lot easier. Besides, if she was really Kyra's sister, she could survive on her own. She'd probably wait around until someone else docked on the planet and hitch a ride with them. Yeah, she'd be alright. Riddick was about to drop her bag on the ground when he remembered that it was what Kyra had made Raven promise.

God damn her. God damn the both of them! One had made him soft, and the other was just rubbing dirt in the wound. Riddick growled angrily at himself and dragged hand down the length of his face before taking off after the running girl.

…

Raven stopped for breath when she cleared the woods and came up to the house. It was huge, with two floors, giant double front doors and a circular overhang over the path that led to said doors. A chain hung down from the overhang, where Raven guessed a light had once been. It was dirty and decrepit, the walls cracked and chinked and one of the doors hanging off its hinges, but Raven thought it was one of the most beautiful sites she'd ever seen. It was so big; there were bound to be some provisions in there!

She stumbled up to the door, grabbing hold of the knob and turning. Her smile faded when she pulled but the door stuck. She tried pushing, but it still didn't move. Raven banged her head against the frame in frustration.

"Come on, I can't get one break?" She raised her head and tried the door again, slamming her palm against it when it still stuck. Raven sighed and turned, leaning her back against the door and slumping her shoulders in defeat.

"Riddick," she called out, "Riddick, could you come get this door open for me?" Before too long the mountain of a man appeared, toting both bags and looking very annoyed with her. Raven gulped at the look he gave her, but still she pointed over her shoulder at the door.

"It won't open." she repeated helplessly. Riddick was silent, raising an eyebrow at her.

"You've gotta be kidding me." he murmured under his breath, walking up to her anyway. He pushed the two bags into her chest, knocking the breath out of her as she flung her arms up to hold them. Riddick wrapped one big hand around the knob and pulled forcefully. The door snapped open with a crack of breaking wood, splinters of it flying off in different directions and rust of the knob staining Riddick's hand. Raven smiled weakly at him as he walked into the house, following and ducking just in time as he had let go of the thick cobweb he'd lifted out of his way.

It was dark in the house, but still Raven could make out the grand staircase and broken chandelier, the marble tiles and the many other doors that led to different rooms. There were papers scattered around, all of them too torn or worn away by the elements to be read. She stepped carefully over some broken glass, looking every which way as she tried taking everything in. Riddick stood a couple feet from her, his goggles pushed up onto his forehead and his silvery eyes shining eerily in the darkness. He looked around too, observing the things Raven couldn't and probably preferred not to see. There was a human skeleton lying in a corner, the bones broken and cracked as though the person was trampled to death. The bones were pure white, so there was nothing left to decay and give off a smell. Raven was stumbling around in the dark, struggling to see and heading in the direction of the bones.

"Raven," Riddick yelled at her, making her jump and look over to him, "Go look in those rooms. If you find anything, get me." he said, pointing towards the row of doors on the left wall while he went off into one of the rooms on the right. She nodded and obeyed, walking cautiously through one of the doors.

It was just as dark as the entrance hall had been. It looked like a sitting room of sorts, with overturned couches and chairs scattered around. There was what looked like a fireplace against one wall, and a portrait or two were lying ripped and dusty on the ground underneath where they had hung on the wall. Was the place already this messed up when the people left, or did it happen as they were evacuating the planet? Had they all left in panic and chaos? Raven didn't know, but she got a cold, lonely feeling in this room, so she left and went into one of the others. It was a kitchen. She raced to the fridge, but upon opening it she was assailed with the stench of rotting food, so she covered her mouth and nose and closed it again.

"So much for lunch." she mumbled to herself, setting the bags down on a counter and going through the drawers and cabinets. She found some knives that she put aside, thinking maybe Riddick could teach her to use them, and four or five sealed water bottles that still looked good. Other than that there was nothing of value, so she put the knives and water bottles in her messenger bag and went on to the next room. She was reaching out for the knob when she heard Riddick call out to her.

"We got running water." he hollered. Raven followed his voice until she came upon him in a bathroom, splashing the water flowing from the faucet over his face and hands.

"I found some stuff, too." she answered, patting her bag. Riddick didn't respond, "How do you know it's not acidic like the first time?"

"This place has its own private store of water. A king or emperor probably lived here, so they had water reserves built in to avoid it being poisoned or polluted." he answered, shaking his head around and spraying Raven with the water droplets.

"What did you find?" he asked, turning and holding out his hand expectantly. Raven took out the knives and laid them gingerly in his large palm.

"I found some water bottles, too." she said, closing her bag and watching as he looked over the knives. He held each one in his fighting hand, swiping at the air with it and testing its weight. When he was done, he had put three into one pile and two into another. He took the three and shoved them into his bag, taking it from her and hooking it over his own shoulder. Raven was beginning to wonder if the other two blades were no good when he pointed at them.

"You'll use those ones." he said without looking at her. Raven practically squealed in happiness. She was right; he was giving her her own weapons! She snatched them from where he had set them on the floor, placing them lovingly in her messenger bag and smiling the whole time. They spent the rest of the day searching through the house, finding an oval-shaped room with a door designed to look like a part of the wall. Riddick thought it had once been an office of sorts, probably where the king did all of his business with officials. It would explain the hidden door and the overturned desk lying in a corner. The sun was setting when Riddick found Raven lying in one of the rooms, face down and in a cold sweat from lack of nutrition.

"No food?" she asked weakly. He shook his head as he dragged her up by her arms, supporting her down the stairs back into the entrance hall.

"We still have a couple rooms we haven't looked in yet." she continued hopefully as he let her slowly sink back to the ground, handing her the bags.

"You won't have to." he said suddenly. Raven blinked.

"Why?" she asked, pulling herself to her feet and stumbling over to him. Riddick threw out an arm to stop her, nodding at a small dark shape that was moving in a corner.

"You left the door open." he said. Raven squinted at the thing, her mouth opening in shock when she realized it looked like some altered species of cattle. It was smaller than a cow, with three horns instead of two and a golden-brown shine to its coat of hair.

"It looks like some sub-species of cow." she remarked, looking at Riddick as though he could explain it for her while clutching onto his arm to support herself.

"So? We get to eat tonight." he whispered back. He pushed her backwards with his arm, taking out his shiv and walking cautiously up to animal. It was snuffling around on the floor, but after Riddick took a few steps she looked up and eyed him warily. She watched him as he took a few more steps towards her, the shiv raised and his muscles flexing as he moved slowly forward. When he stepped on a piece of crinkled paper and it slid a little along the floor, the animal took a step backwards at the noise. Raven sucked in a breath.

"Shut up." Riddick hissed back, making her bite her lip and frown. The animal flicked her tail nervously, her brown eyes never leaving Riddick's slowly advancing form. When he closed into reaching distance, the animal tried to bolt. However, it only took one well aimed stab from Riddick in her neck, and she went down. Raven watched as blood spurted from the animal's jugular vein onto Riddick's face and chest, her stomach lurching and her lips forming a grimace.

"Get used to blood, kid," Riddick said as he freed his blade from the animal's flesh, "You're going to be seeing a lot of it the next few months." Raven swallowed hard, retreating into the sitting room anyway and covering her ears as Riddick skinned and gutted the animal. She only came out when he yelled at her to go get some sticks for a fire, and even then she avoided looking at the meat until he had it cooked and ready to eat.

They slept in the oval-shaped room. They burned the fire all night, opening the windows to let the smoke out and Riddick waking on instinct every time it started dying. Whenever he poked at the flames or added another stick to keep it going he would look over at Raven's sleeping form. She looked very peaceful when she was asleep. Very calm and unbothered. Riddick almost felt bad for her, knowing that when he was through training her she would only ever look that peaceful again when she was dead.

And, knowing that it was him she had been stuck with, death probably wasn't too far off for her.

_In case no one guessed, the house they found is the White House. No real reason as to why I put that in, I just thought it'd be cool. As always, review and/ or flame, whichever you feel is appropriate. I don't care really._


	7. Chapter 6

_I realize this chapter is much longer than my previous ones and that it has basically no point. Just letting you all know that I've realized this, and I'm trying my hardest to make this better. Hopefully what happens after this will live up to the standards I set for this fic. If not... Thanks for supporting me anyways._

"Missed me." Riddick said, stepping out of the way of Raven's stab. The girl went flying forward, having put too much force behind her thrust. She stumbled and almost fell, but she quickly turned and tried attacking him again. She failed again, too, as Riddick merely grabbed her wrist as it passed him, turned it and squeezed until she dropped the blade and was howling in pain.

"Jesus!" she hissed, dropping to the ground and cradling her wrist to her chest as Riddick released her. He stepped closer to her and placed the tip of his knife underneath her chin, pushing up to make her look at him. He saw the tears glistening in her fierce green eyes, and he shook his head.

"You're trying too hard," he said, "Try too hard, you make a mistake. You make a mistake, you die. Look at this right now; I've got you disarmed and on your knees. If this was a real fight, you'd be on the ground with you throat sliced open." Raven let her eyes drift away, admitting that she was making mistakes and doing everything wrong. Riddick tapped the knife against her chin.

"Get up. Try again. And this time, don't force it. Just let it come to you." he said, removing the knife and stepping back. Raven angrily dashed the tears from her eyes and pushed herself to her feet. She grabbed her knife from the ground and clenched her fist around it, raising her head and glaring at Riddick.

"So you basically want me to wing it?" she asked. Riddick shrugged, raising his own knife.

"More or less. Now go!" he said, lunging at her with his knife raised to her face. Raven spun away from him and tried tripping him by kicking at his ankles, but she only succeeded in bringing them both down. She landed across Riddick's broad back, knocking the breath out of both of them and the knife flying from her hand again. Riddick groaned.

"Sorry." Raven muttered, yelping when he flung her off with one hand and she flipped over backwards. She landed hard on her back, blinking when Riddick towered over her with an annoyed look on his half-hidden face.

"You're trying too damn hard!" he repeated, this time shouting, "Stop pushing yourself before you get hurt." He jerked her roughly to her feet, shoving the knife back into her hand. Raven wiped frustrated tears from her eyes with the back of her wrist.

"What do you care if I get hurt, anyway?" she mumbled under her breath. Riddick looked over his shoulder at her.

"I don't. But you're the one who wanted me to train you, so shut up and do this right!" he growled. Raven sighed.

"Why do I get the feeling that Kyra learned this a lot easier than me?" she mumbled, not expecting Riddick to respond.

"Because Kyra needed it," he said, looking at her from behind those ominous black goggles, "You just want it." Raven slumped her shoulders in exhaustion.

"Shouldn't wanting it be enough?" she asked.

"Wanting it is never enough. You have to need it." His words struck something in her. They were few and blunt, yet at the same time they held so much meaning for her. Raven narrowed her eyes in determination and swept her long hair into a ponytail. Right; she was through trying to imitate her sister. She was going to do as Riddick said, and just do it as it came. When he turned back to her and found her already in a fighting stance, he paused. She had dropped the tough girl mask and gave him a look that clearly said, 'I'm ready to try this for real. So what the hell are you staring at?' Riddick felt the corner of his mouth twitch ever so slightly in a smile. Finally, he was going to get to fight Raven, not Raven trying to be like Kyra.

"Go." he said, stepping forward and thrusting towards her abdomen with his knife. Raven spun away again, but this time she reacted on instinct and took the first hit she saw: ramming her elbow in his back right between his shoulder blades. Riddick jerked forward, releasing a breath as the stab of pain hit him, and Raven froze in shock that she had made a hit on him. She started to smile when a flash of light swiping towards her made her fly backwards, sucking in her stomach to avoid being sliced by Riddick's knife. She kept dodging, uncertain of what to do next, but when she accidentally stepped to the left when Riddick swiped to the right, and his knife just barely missed her, she let her arm think for itself. As his arm passed by her, she sliced into it and then jumped as far back as she could. Riddick clapped a hand over the wound, looking from it to her in obvious surprise. Raven fought against a smile, watching proudly as her handiwork dripped a couple drops of blood. Her satisfaction with what she'd done led to her undoing, however, as while she'd been praising herself on managing to cut Riddick, he'd taken advantage of her distraction and lunged. He threw himself at her, forcing her to the ground and, after a brief struggle, disarming her and pressing his knife against her throat. They were both panting, soaked with sweat and dirty from falling on the ground so much.

"Not bad." Riddick said, removing the blade from her neck and standing, "You still lost, but at least this time you did it right." He offered her a hand up, Raven accepting it with a small smile.

"Can we keep going?" she asked almost immediately.

"No." Riddick responded just as quickly.

"What?" she gasped, "Why not?" Riddick wiped some sweat from his goggles, grabbing the knife from her and growling when she put up a fight for it. Raven reluctantly let go, whimpering at the loss of her new favorite accessory.

"Because you don't want to push it. You were able to go more than a minute in a fight against me; that in and of itself is something to brag about." Riddick answered, heading back to the house with Raven following at his heels.

"But if we keep going, then I can-" Raven started, but Riddick turned swiftly and gave her a look that stopped her dead.

"I said no. Now go shower and change your clothes. You stink." he commanded, pointing into the house. Raven glared at him but obeyed, stomping away and grumbling under her breath. She banged through the house, purposely slamming doors and kicking the walls before turning on the water and jumping in. Still outside, Riddick sighed and massaged his neck, rolling his head and exercising his shoulders.

"Why is it that every young woman I meet wants to be just like me? What the hell is with that, huh?" he asked to no one in particular. Kicking at the dirt in frustration, he followed after Raven into the house, knocking on the bathroom door and yelling at her to hurry up so he could take his turn. He thought he heard some swear words in response, but when he asked her to repeat herself she hollered that she hadn't said a thing.

"Smart-ass little…" he growled through the door, letting his voice trail off into nothingness as his stomach called for attention. They'd eaten all the meat from the cow-thing, and for the past couple weeks had been living off berries that Raven had proudly declared as found by her and a few birds they'd been lucky enough to see flying overhead. He'd managed to get the refrigerator working again, and when he looked inside he saw they had three and a half of the birds left and a cupful of berries. The animal side of him calling out for meat, Riddick grabbed the bird that was half gone and reheated it in the microwave that, surprisingly, still worked after all these centuries. He inhaled it in less than ten minutes, throwing the plate he'd used in the sink and walking back to the entrance hall.

He'd removed the human bones, waiting until Raven was asleep one night before sneaking back downstairs and burying them in the back. He didn't want her to find them and come screaming to him about it, and also… the thought of human remains in the same house as them freaked him out. It shouldn't have, with all the blood he had on his hands, but it did. It was like, every time he passed them by, he would remember all the death he'd seen and caused.

He'd remembered his first kill when he'd buried them. He'd only been seventeen when he'd managed to track down the mercs who had sold the orphans into slavery, and he'd gotten his revenge for his friend Ben and the others. He'd killed them, every last one of the gutless bastards, and he'd gone straight to the slam for it. He did more killing to escape, and even more to steal a ship, and more again to keep his freedom, and it just went on from there. Riddick didn't like killing; he wasn't proud of the lives he'd taken. But sometimes, if you want to survive, you have to do things you never thought you'd do and you have to come to terms with yourself when you realize you've turned into a monster. He had done it, Kyra had done it, and Riddick feared that soon Raven would do it, too. He didn't like the girl much, in fact there were times when it was all he could do not to strangle her, but he didn't want another life to be destroyed the way his had. He wouldn't want that even for his worst enemy.

Riddick snapped out of it when he suddenly saw Raven standing at the foot of the steps, a towel wrapped around her body and her waist-length black hair dripping water onto the floor. She had her head tilted to the side questioningly, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"You okay?" she asked, concern in her voice. Riddick crossed his arms defensively.

"Fine. Why?" he replied, pushing past her and starting to make his way up the stairs. Raven shrugged.

"Nothing. It's just, when I first came down, you looked like… you looked like you were going to cry." she said quietly, avoiding looking at him when he stopped dead on the stairs and looked down at her. Nothing was said for a few minutes, the tension so tight it could be cut with a knife. Finally Raven sighed, turning and walking off into one of the rooms.

"I'm gonna… I'm gonna go change now." she said, smiling faintly at him before hurrying into the room, her hair flapping damply against her back. Riddick grunted in acknowledgement, lifting his foot to continue up the steps when something caught his eye; the swing of her hips as she retreated into the room.

Riddick blinked. He had never noticed before, but Raven was rather pretty. How had he never noticed before? Maybe because he'd never seen her half-naked before. As she disappeared into the room to change, he took in every visible part of her body; she had nicely shaped legs, a little thin but long. Her waist was slim and her hips were rounded nicely, flowing together between her midriff and her legs. Her breasts were smaller than he liked on women, but they sat high and proud on her chest. Her neck was long and slender, almost swanlike. She wasn't beautiful, but she was enough to attract him. God, it had been so long since he'd last been with anyone…

What the fuck was he thinking?! That was Kyra's sister! He couldn't think about screwing her, it was just wrong. Riddick gave his head a good hard shake, rubbing his hand over his jaw and rushing the rest of the way up the stairs without daring to look back down. He wasted not a second in jumping into the shower, groaning when he only got about two minutes of hot water. Ignoring it and leaning his arm against the tiled wall, his head resting on his arm, he took a series of deep breaths. The icy cold water droplets pelted down on his bare back and drew freezing little rivers down his body, but Riddick welcomed the shivering and goosebumps he paid as a price. It distracted him from thinking more than affectionate things about Raven.

Later that night, they ate in silence. Raven looked up every now and then, wondering if she should attempt conversation, but then again what was there to talk about? They'd been on this rock for almost a month now, and since the ship that brought them left, no other people had appeared. God knows when the next ship would dock, and if it did the chances of them knowing about it were slim. Kyra had been talked about too much, and Raven feared even bringing up her name would rip open the wound on her heart that was just now beginning to heal. Though he was loathe to admit it, Raven knew Riddick must've been scarred from her death, too, and Raven didn't want to cause him any pain either. Her training had been beaten to death, they'd talked about it so much, so Raven threw that idea out. There was only one more thing they could talk about that came to her mind, and it was a topic Raven had been hell-bent on avoiding. The silence was driving her crazy, though, so she decided to bring it up… as gently, slowly, and nonchalantly as possible.

"So," she began quietly, her voice soft as she set her empty plate down, "You know almost everything there is to know about my sister and me. Don't you think it's only fair that I know about… about you?" she said, keeping her eyes downcast. She realized, though, that she should've known the innocent act didn't work on Riddick, as within seconds he had jumped from his seat, replied with a forceful 'no', dumped his plate in the sink and left. Raven remained where she sat, hands clasped in her lap and head down. _Man_, was she stupid.

Sighing and shaking her head of heavy black hair at herself, she slowly stood and started washing the plates, being as quiet as she could about it. Whenever she feared she'd gotten herself into trouble, Raven would do all she could to keep very quiet. She had an instinctive feeling that, if no one knew she was there because they couldn't hear her, then it would be forgotten all the sooner. She knew that was far from true, especially with Riddick, but it made her feel better. When she'd washed the two plates three times and spent more than enough time making sure they were absolutely without-a-doubt dry, she put them back in the cabinet she'd cleaned out and stopped.

What was she to do now? Should she go upstairs and try to make nice with Riddick, or should she just avoid him for a while? Damn; in the one month she'd spent with him, Raven knew less about his character than Kyra did after the two days she'd spent with him on that planet. She had no clue what the consequences would be if she decided to try talking to him, and she had no idea what they'd be either if she avoided him. Her sister would know; but then again Kyra did know almost everything there was to know, or at least she acted like it. Sighing and looking carefully up to the ceiling, Raven squared her shoulders and went back upstairs to the oval room they were sleeping in.

Riddick laying out one of the blankets they'd found in one of the closets. The house was just full of stuff people had left behind: blankets, clothes for all seasons, books, pictures, Raven had even found a whole supply of tampons in one of the bathrooms, much to her relief. They were sleeping under the blankets by night and then folding them away during the day, and Riddick was unfolding his on the floor. He had his back turned to her, so when she appeared in the doorway he didn't notice. Raven stopped when she realized he didn't know she was there, and if he did he wasn't acknowledging it. She leaned gently against the doorframe, watching him and wondering what could have happened to him to turn him into the killing machine he was.

"What are you staring at?" he said suddenly, making her jump. Raven blinked and stood upright, shaking her head a little.

"Nothing." she muttered. Riddick eyed her for a few more seconds before turning back to his task. When he had the gray blanket spread out on the floor, he rose back to his full height and turned to look her dead in the eyes. Raven took a deep breath and stared back, trying not to think about the ominousness of those black goggles or the facts that his large arms could break her in half without trying. Even after a month of training with him, there were still times where her breath would catch in her throat from fear. They stood like that, locked in a contest of willpower, until Raven couldn't take it anymore and she looked away first. Riddick turned away when she did, walking over to the closet, pulling out her blanket and tossing it to her. Raven caught it and laid it out a few meters away from his, leaving enough room in between them for the fire that night. It was already getting dark, some weird sub-species of birds that must've evolved after the abandonment of the planet flying around wildly outside the window. Raven couldn't be sure, but she thought it was probably around the end of summer, getting into autumn. The nights would be getting colder, soon.

She didn't know why that made her feel sad inside. Raven sat down on her blanket and wrapped her arms around her knees, resting her chin on her hands and sighing. Riddick, who was kneeling over trying to start the fire up, glanced over.

"What's with you?" he asked uncaringly. Raven shrugged.

"I dunno," she mumbled, "Autumn makes me sad. All the trees dying and the animals going away. It's like everything dies." Raven had no idea what she was saying, and why she was telling it to Riddick who she knew couldn't care less. She had never been good at hiding her emotions, and no matter how she tried she couldn't master control of them either. When she started feeling overwhelmed or stressed, she would sink into a temporary depression. She could feel it happening now.

"This planet's already dead, so you don't got nothin' to worry about, then, do you?" Riddick replied monotonously as he got a spark going and started blowing gently on it to light the wood. Raven couldn't even bring herself to glare at him, but instead turned her head away so that she was stuck staring at the rounded wall of the room. The sun gave one last glimmer of light, then it disappeared under the horizon and night officially fell. The room grew darker by the second, until a loud crack from the fire made Raven jump and look back to Riddick. It was burning strong, the smoke drifting up to the ceiling and then out of the open window. Raven watched the flames dance merrily in front of them, wondering if fire was meant to symbolize happiness, passion, or hate…

"You going to sleep?" Riddick suddenly asked. Raven blinked and shrugged, then crawled under her blanket after slipping a black sweatshirt over her white T-shirt. She turned over onto her side so she could keep watching the fire, not knowing why it kept her so interested. Riddick kicked off his heavy combat boots and laid on his back on his blanket, stretching his arms over his head and watching the ceiling. They were lost in silence again, the lack of connection with him making Raven feel more and more depressed about her whole situation. She wondered if, when Kyra had told her to stick it out with Riddick, she'd known this is what she'd be going through. Did her sister really think she could take this? This heartlessness and disinterest this man showed for her? Raven was beginning to think she and her sister shared the same fault: they each believed too much in the other.

…

Riddick didn't say anything when Raven crawled onto her blanket and curled herself into a small ball. When she spoke about the death of trees making her depressed, he made an unconcerned comment that he knew probably hurt her more. When she wordlessly obeyed his order to go to sleep, he laid down on his own blanket and closed his eyes behind his goggles.

And he couldn't sleep. Something was bothering her, and if something was bothering her, it bothered him simply because he felt responsible for her. Raven tried hard to hide her feelings, but she failed miserably every time. He could tell that she was doubting herself and her abilities. She didn't know if she could do this, stick it out with him and train. She was considering going home, if anyone back there would take her. Riddick thought; he could send her to New Mecca to live with Lajjun and Ziza. After the death of Imam, the two had been barely holding on, and Raven could help watch out for them. There was an… 'acquaintance' of his in the Zephyr Galaxy, a woman who owned a café and would be more than willing to take in a charity case, so long as she came from him. Those two would be his best bets when she decided to leave.

_If_ she decided to leave. He couldn't forget that Raven was tied to him by loyalty to Kyra, and when it came to blood he knew people did not mess around. She may yet prove herself worthy of training with him, capable of keeping up.

He thought he knew her problem now: she just didn't know where she belonged. She was young, not yet twenty. She had probably had dreams and hopes that were shattered when her promise to Kyra was called in. Thinking this reminded Riddick of a painting he'd seen once; an angel, his golden hair streaming behind him, plummeting head over heels from the clouds of Heaven to the pits of Hell. She wasn't sure if she'd made the right decisions in her life. She was kind of like that angel: fallen from grace, and not even sure why she had fallen in the first place.

He shivered, and not because of the chilled night air streaming into the room from the open window. No one had ever provoked thoughts like that from him, except for one. To have it happen again after two years of not feeling anything for another person made him shake. Imam's little girl, Ziza, had earned affection and protectiveness from him with only a smile. Lajjun had been granted respect and kindness for the inner strength she had in her. Carolyn he still thought about regularly, feeling just the tiniest bit of regret for having her die for him when she should've lived.

Raven had done nothing to earn any sort of feeling from him. So why was she the only one who was making him shudder?

_I've realized what the point of this chapter was. It was to give more insight into the main characters, and how much they're affecting each other without even realizing it. Yes, I realize it's rather emo with Raven being depressed, but you can't deny that it would happen if a situation like hers actually happened. I'm trying to make it realistic here, not necessarily the most entertaining. _

_Okay, defensive rant over. Go ahead and review if you want to, or flame me. Whichever you think I deserve._


	8. Chapter 7

Raven was _not_ happy. Several things had happened that had added to her anger, but the biggest one had to be that she and Riddick had fought. Again. It wasn't really too important, but it wore her out and often times sent her to the temporary depressions she was prone to. It was just plain tiring, and she wanted all their spats to stop.

Raven stomped out of the kitchen, turning her back on a fuming Riddick, and into the sitting room that gave her the creeps. Lately, though, it hadn't been freaking her out so much as it had been interesting her. She found herself going there whenever she felt overwhelmed or pissed off, and since Riddick had no particular interest in the room he never came in to see her crying, or to see her pounding the shit out of a pillow that she was pretending was his face. It was like her own private sanctuary, and no one could take it from her. She was even starting to suspect that Riddick knew she had claimed that place as her own, as several once when she was in there and she heard him coming, she gave a loud sniff and suddenly Riddick was walking in the opposite direction. Raven stormed into that room now as hot tears began to push their way up. They were not tears of sadness or helplessness, however; they were tears of anger and frustration.

"Bastard!" she hollered, burying her face in a pillow to stifle the noise before throwing it with all her strength against the wall. It hit its mark with a surprisingly loud bang, falling to the floor where she stomped over to it and kicked it away. Her anger exhausted quickly, Raven sunk down to her knees and hung her head, her breath coming hard from her exertions.

"Jerk," she mumbled quietly, "Jughead!" Raven wiped an angry tear away from her fierce green eye, sniffing loudly before rising back to her feet. She crossed her arms defensively over her chest, looking around the room. She surprised herself; this was possibly the shortest amount of time she had ever spent in the room, when her anger had been released and dealt with so soon.

"You done?" Riddick's appearance out of nowhere made her heart jump into her throat. Raven snapped around, her black hair whipping around in a giant arc above her head, gasping in surprise.

"Jesus!" she exclaimed, pressing a hand to her chest, "Why do you always do that?" Her voice held agitation and just a little bit of curiosity; after all, Riddick had taught her how to use a knife but not how to move with the shadows like he did so well. The goggled man did not respond to her exact question.

"If you're still pissed, then scream some more. I promise I won't pay attention." he said while turning away, his arms crossed over his muscular chest and his combat boots pounding rhythmically on the floor. He heard her growl low in her throat as he walked away, "You could try jughead again. That was a real big cut to my pride there." He smirked when she screamed in frustration, throwing the pillow at his head and missing by inches. She was getting better at her aim, he'd give her that much. Riddick grabbed the pillow from the floor and threw it back at her, ignoring the scathing look she shot towards him and trying not to notice how attractive her eyes were when she was pissed.

His thoughts about her hadn't gone away. Riddick wasn't truly sure if it was just intense physical attraction he felt for her, or if she was really starting to take Kyra's place. All he knew was that whenever they were in close proximity he thought about how good she smelled, or about how pretty her hair was when it caught the sunlight, and the most frequent one of how much of a fight could she put up if he were to… Usually he managed to stop himself before that particular thought went too far. The times he didn't block it out, however, were the thoughts he didn't feel comfortable even revisiting in his dreams… which, more often than not, he would wind up doing anyways. It wasn't like he hated the thoughts; Raven was a woman, he was a man, and they'd been stuck together for a couple months now. It was only natural that they'd start noticing each other. The closest they'd ever come to one another was during their practices, and though those brief seconds of contact were fleeting, sometimes his body continued to tingle, and whenever she came close for a few hours after that it was all he could do not to throw her on a table and screw her brains out right there.

Riddick stopped as he approached the front door. He had to question himself; would he really do that? Riddick was a murderer, not a rapist. Sure, he'd had his fair share of women, and he'd definitely wanted some who didn't want him, but while other men of his profession had no problems pointing a gun to a woman's head to get what they wanted Riddick had always been reluctant to pursue that course. It was perhaps the only piece of humanity in him that had still existed before Carolyn had woken him up. He'd seen women being raped, he'd seen the empty, broken look in their eyes afterwards, and he didn't want to be the causer of that look. He could still his lust long enough to find a willing woman to take it out on. However, this planet was void of all human life. The only woman here was Raven, and Riddick was wondering how long he could hold out against her. He knew it couldn't be forever, and he was hoping he could get her trained and out of his sight before the animal in him took over.

"Alright, you've had your laugh." a voice said from behind him. Riddick swore in his mind as he turned around and he saw her standing there, her jeans accentuating the curve of her legs and her black sweatshirt leaving the rest to his imagination. Why did she have to show up now, of all times?

"Now can we please, _please_, just forget it ever happened? I mean, I am a woman; we get those… those times. There's no reason for me to be embarrassed and there's no need for you to torture me about it. So can we please put it behind us?" she said, putting her hands on her hips and giving him a hopeful look. It was humiliating enough to have to bring up the same topic they'd just gotten done fighting about (Raven had just gotten off her period and he had found out), yet Riddick just stared at her like he always did whenever she asked him a question. Raven's anger and frustration had only recently subsided, and so the black goggles turning to face her again, giving neither an answer nor any sign of emotion, made her snap.

"That's it!" she screamed, and before Riddick could blink she had lunged for him, her hands reaching out like the claws of a wildcat and her green eyes beginning to burn. Riddick had never seen that look on her face before. It wasn't the hard cruelty formed from a lifetime of hurt like Kyra, and it wasn't the cool thinking of Imam or Carolyn. That look on her face was something Riddick had only seen reflected at him in a mirror; it was pure rage. He flung up his hands to catch her and push her away, but she wasn't lunging for his face. She was reaching for his belt, on which hung one of his shivs. She ducked under his arms and snatched it from him, spinning around his back to his other side where she shoved him up against the door and pressed the blade to his throat.

"You listen to me!" she screeched, staring him straight in the eye, "My entire life people have thought I was too weak. My parents thought I couldn't stop them from beating me half to death, and they were right. My sister thought I wasn't smart enough to traverse the universe on my own for very long, and she was right, too. You… oh, you! You are the worst, the absolute worst! Because you don't think I'm too stupid to travel, and you don't think I'm too weak to defend myself. You just don't believe in me! Whether you can believe it or not, that hurts more than anything else in my life, and I am tired of it! I'm sick of being looked down upon, and I'm sick of people doing stupid shit trying to keep me safe. So, I'm not taking it anymore. You are going to train me hard, and you are going to stop your stupid games of cat-and-mouse with me. You got it? I said do you got it?!" Her voice was strident, like the call for help a bird gave out when it was being attacked by another bird. Her eyes, however, were not helpless at all. The burning infuriation, hate, and pain in them was enough to knock the most hardened opponent off their feet. Riddick was thankful she had him shoved against the door, or else he wasn't so sure he'd be able to not back away a little. She wasn't scaring him with the possibility of her slicing through his throat; she was scaring him with the possibility that another woman, another life, had been turned into a replica of his: mangled, burned, practically destroyed.

Taking a deep breath however, and gathering himself, Riddick smirked. Raven blinked, the murderous look in her eyes fading to be mixed with bewilderment.

"You're _laughing_?" she muttered incredulously.

"Yeah. Its funny." he stated in response. Her lips curled upwards in a snarl, and Riddick saw her wrist muscles tighten in preparation to dig the knife in deeper. He never gave her the chance, though. Before the action could be sent shooting up her wrist nerves to her fingers, Riddick had shoved his own hand in between the blade and his neck, grabbed her wrist, spun her around, flipped the knife so that it was now in his grasp, wrapped his big arms around her tiny frame and pressed the blade to her own throat. Raven gave a small scream, her hands flying up to try and pry Riddick off of her. He only grabbed both of her slender wrists in his hand, though, and he had her trapped against him. She squirmed and grunted, her feet flying up in the air as she kicked out in futile attempts to get away.

"Let me go, you bastard!" she hollered. Riddick didn't respond, but instead tightened his grip on her as she flailed around. Her body moving against his distracted him greatly from his task of keeping her still, but he gritted his teeth and closed the thoughts off from the rest of his mind.

"I said let me go! Jesus, why do you always have to… to overpower me?! Do you even realize how infuriating that is?!" she shouted, still trying with all her might to free herself. Riddick didn't reply again, but instead kept her wrapped tight in his arms, waiting for her to wear herself out. It didn't take too long. After a couple more minutes she stopped fighting, hanging limply in his arms and panting. Riddick waited a few more seconds then gently let her drop to the floor. She glared up at him and he glared back.

"You should get angry more often. For a second I thought you really were going to kill me." he finally said, looking down on her and then walking away when she blinked in surprise. Raven flipped herself over onto her stomach and watched as he walked off, stowing away his shiv. She breathed out harshly through her nose before flopping dramatically onto her back. He always did that; he baited her, let her get pissed off, then walked away as if he had nothing to do with it. She hated that about him! She hated it so much that sometimes she swore the world was exploding with her anger and resentment!

Which, just as she lifted a fist to slam on the floor, it did.

Releasing a scream, Raven curled herself into a ball on the floor, burying her head under her arms as the wall in front of her exploded. She peaked through her fingers, staring wide-eyed in fear at the giant hole in the wall. Flames were lighting it up, the advancing figures of people made eerie and all the more threatening by the smoke. Raven sat up, the heat from the fires making her instantly break out in sweat and the black smoke sending her into a fit of violent coughing.

"Ri- Riddick… Riddick!" she hollered, scrambling backwards as the people came closer. Raven felt a tug on the back of her shirt, and the next thing she knew Riddick had her lifted onto his shoulder and was running with her into the kitchen. She was hanging upside down, struggling to retain her balance as her heavy black hair swept close to the floor.

"Riddick, what the fuck is going on?!" she screamed as they barged into the kitchen and he set her back down on her feet. He clapped a hand over her mouth and drug her back into a dark corner, holding her close to his chest again and hissing at her to shut up.

"Mercs. They've tracked me down," he responded quietly as running footsteps and shouts came closer. Raven's green eyes went wide again in fear, "They'll kill you if you get in their way, and fuck, Raven, I will not have another person dying for me! Now shut the hell up!" His voice was fierce and threatening, telling her clearly that if she wouldn't stop talking on her own he'd have no problem making her. Raven nodded a little, her hands instinctively wrapping around his thick arm not in attempts to pry him off, but just so she could have something to hold onto. Something to keep her from screaming in terror. She'd heard about mercs; Kyra, when she and Raven had first been reunited, had told her about Johns, the merc disguising himself as a cop. If all mercs were like him, she was thankful she was with a murderer like Riddick. He'd take care of them… right?

His grip on her tightened as two mercs, a man and a woman, came into the kitchen. They had their guns raised and were walking carefully through the room. The woman's hair was cut in a short pixie-style, her midriff revealed by her tank-top and her angular face twisted into a cold grin.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are. C'mon, Riddick, we won't hurt you. We're not even-" The man cut her off with a sharp hiss.

"Hey! They told us not to say anything! If you make a stupid mistake, whether we get the target or not won't save you from the chopping block, and I won't go down with you! Now shut your trap!" he whispered, giving her a damning look. The woman rolled her eyes uncaringly without turning around to face him, turning a little towards Raven and Riddick's hiding place. She switched on a light set on top of her gun, shining it into the shadows. She turned slowly towards them, and Raven realized she was going to see them. She thought frantically, thinking of what could be down to save them, but before she could even formulate a possible plan, Riddick had released her, rushed forward, snapped the woman's neck and then stabbed the man in the back. He lowered the man to the ground slowly so as not to make too much noise. Raven still stood in the corner, a little dazed from the fast transition and her stomach still threatening to rebel from the sickening crack of the woman's neck breaking. She stepped forward a little as Riddick went through their pockets, shoving a shiv into her hand and taking their guns and the extra rounds they had.

"Come on." Riddick said, grabbing her wrist and dragging her out of the kitchen. He pushed her to stand behind him as they ran down a hallway, forcing her to stay as close to the wall as possible. When Raven tried forcing her way out to stand beside him, he wrapped an arm around her waist, picked her up and set her back down where she had started from.

"I said I won't have you dying for me." he muttered more to himself than to her. There was no denying it now; Riddick cared about her. At least a little bit. He had fought like hell to keep her as far from his heart as possible, and she'd still got in. Just like her sister. They were the same in that respect at least; both of them had an inner strength that was uncommon in most other people, both of them were too damn stubborn for their own good, and they had both gotten past his walls. There was still one difference, though: Kyra had slowly but surely worked around his defenses, sneaking in past his guards with the stealth of a shadow and planting herself firmly and forever in his heart. Raven had just walked the path her sister had cleared, sidling in next to Kyra with her own place. Kyra had been the first to ever get that close to him, and to stick with him through everything, even death. That would always make her far more important than Raven, and thus always far more dangerous, to him.

A round of gunfire went off near them, so close that Raven dropped to the ground on instinct and Riddick lunged on top of her, pressing her into the floor to protect her.

"Riddick, we have to get up!" she said loudly into his ear. He shook his head.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?! We have to stay down."

"No, we can't! If we stay here, they'll find us and they'll take us. We have to get up and run for it!" Raven replied earnestly, squirming under his body weight to try and free herself. Riddick suddenly gripped her face in his big hand, turning it to look him dead in the eye.

"Do you want to get shot?" he shouted. Raven shook her head, "Do you want to die?" Raven's head moved side to side again, "Then stop fighting me and stay down!" Raven obeyed him this time, keeping her body curled up in a small ball and sinking farther into the huge cave that his body formed around her. They waited it out, and when the gunfire ceased Riddick wasted no time in dragging her into a standing position and taking off with her in tow.

They didn't get too far, though. As they rounded a corner they collided with the mercs. At first both parties jumped back a little, each of them startled, but unfortunately for Raven and Riddick, the mercs recovered first. Their leader grinned evilly, eyeing Raven with greed and lust.

"Take her." he commanded. Before Raven or even Riddick could react, three of the mercs raced forward and tackled Raven to the ground, proceeding with tying her up and shoving a bit into her mouth. Raven felt the hard metal crack against her teeth, making her eyes water, but the majority of her thoughts were surrounding Riddick and where he was. She heard grunting and yelling, someone screaming out in pain and blood splattering against her face, but the bit was blocking her eyesight. She couldn't see anything. She felt someone step on her chest while running away, making her lose her breath and gasp in pain; that would leave a bruise, if she lived long enough to get one. Someone grabbed hold of her ankle and began dragging her down the hallway, and from the size of the fist she could tell it wasn't Riddick. Raven kicked out blindly at the person, striking them in the jaw and almost smiling in triumph when they released her. Gunfire sounded near to her again, but who it was at she didn't know. Everything was happening so fast; before now, she'd never understood what people meant when they said they couldn't keep track of what was happening. By the time her mind registered that a bullet had hit her in the arm and the pain shot through her limb, blood was already soaking through her sleeve. When the gunfire ended it took several seconds for the ringing in her ears to stop. Nothing else sounded or moved, and Raven wondered fearfully if maybe… Riddick…

"You still alive, kid?" His voice, that deep baritone which could infuriate her one moment and caress her gently the next, broke into her racing thoughts and pulled her to a halt. Raven instantly started crying as he gently removed the bit from her mouth, throwing her arms around his neck and clinging to him for dear life as she lost herself in terrified sobs. Riddick jumped back a little, throwing his arms out wide to avoid touching her. He was used to women throwing themselves at him, but not so they could cry on him. Awkwardly, he patted the top of her head.

"It's over now. We're both alive and those bastards are dead. It's okay." he said uneasily, not sure if what he was saying was doing her much good. Frankly, though, Riddick just wanted her off of him. It felt, in a word, weird to have a crying girl hanging all over you. He was relieved, however, when she quickly regained herself. Raven took a series of deep calming breaths, sniffing loudly and wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands.

"The mercs…?"

"Dead. A couple ran off, but we shouldn't worry about them. You go… You go somewhere. I'll clean this up." he offered, waving her away in the opposite direction. Raven opened her mouth to speak but Riddick pointed strictly over her shoulder, and with a mixed look of defeat, trauma and disgruntled glares she obeyed. Raven crept into the sitting room, crawling on her knees to the pillow she'd attacked earlier and wrapping herself around it. She buried her face in it, massaging her aching jaw and trying to stop shivering. Was that the kind of fear her sister had known on M6-117? The fear of dying so suddenly and violently it didn't even register in your mind that you were dead before it happened? She released a shuddering breath; Raven had never wanted to be back in her old life more than she did now. Suddenly she realized how tired she was. Already lying down with her head resting on a pillow, Raven released a sigh and closed her eyes, drifting off to a restless and thankfully dreamless sleep.

…

Riddick felt bad for her, a little. Witnessing your first kill was always a little… How could he put it? He hadn't been bothered by his first murder because he'd been blinded by revenge and hatred, but other people were… He didn't know, traumatized by it. Yeah, that described it pretty good. He'd seen the sickened, horrified look on her pretty face, and he'd wanted her away from the bloody scene played out before them. About five of the mercs were sprawled on the floor, two of them with their chests riddled with bullet holes, one with a shiv sticking out from his eyes socket, and the last one's neck twisted in an unnatural position. Riddick had done all of that with little trouble, not even having to think about it and not even losing his breath. Raven, however, had looked thoroughly disgusted, almost like she was going to puke. He had sent her back to that sitting room she had grown attached to, so he could clean up the bodies without her in the way and he could go through their stuff without feeling the guilt that burned up his neck when she watched.

He fished around in the mercs things now, brushing aside things that were invaluable and pocketing others that they could use later on. He had finished with three of them, kicking their bodies out of the way, when he came upon the one who had the shiv in his eye. The man had a messenger bag that somewhat resembled Raven's, something that immediately caught Riddick's eye. He dug around in the bag, his deft fingers feeling for anything out of the ordinary.

There, a piece of paper. Most mercs barely had 8th grade educations, so one of them having a book or some other form of writing was unusual. Riddick pulled the paper out, unfolding it and holding it up to the afternoon sunlight. What he saw made him freeze, the hairs on the back of his neck and his arms standing up and a weird sort of tremor passing through his body.

"Raven!" he shouted, breaking into the sitting room and grabbing the obviously resting girl from where she lay on the floor. Raven jerked awake to find herself shoved up against a wall, Riddick's angry face up in hers and a photo of some kind clutched in his hand. Raven furrowed her brow tiredly.

"What?" she mumbled agitatedly. Riddick growled.

"Don't 'what' me, Raven. You lied to me!"

"I… I- I what?" she stuttered over her words, her tongue still thick with sleep and the shock of Riddick's words barely passing over her groggy mind. The man shoved the photo in her face, showing that it was a picture of her in the New Meccan marketplace, her curling black hair catching in a breeze and her messenger bag slung over her shoulder. Her green eyes snapped open.

"You lied to me! Now I'm demanding the truth. Who the fuck are you, and don't even think about spoon-feeding me another lie because believe when I say that I will break you in half with my bare hands!" Riddick barked, ripping off his goggles and staring at her with his silver-shined eyes, knowing that they scared her. Raven glanced nervously up at him, looking back and forth from the picture before sighing and closing her eyes in defeat.


	9. Chapter 8

_The reason why the mercs are after Raven may not be quite what I led you all to believe. It's not as dramatic and interesting as some of your ideas, but trust me: what follows will more than compensate for it._

"Rebel?" Riddick said, standing up and looking down at her in disbelief. Raven nodded, scratching at the bandage Riddick had placed over the gunshot wound she had on her arm, her first battle scar that she intended to wear proudly.

It was nearing midnight, and Raven had just gotten done explaining everything to Riddick. She had told him everything again, and then had filled in the blank spots that she had purposely left out: when the Necromongers had gained infamy in a very far off corner of the universe, so far off that it would take them years more to even be heard of in the part where the Hellion System was, a small group of rebels had cropped up somewhere on Nebulas 4, in the Ophelis System. After a few months they were able to connect with rebel groups in other parts of their world, and then when their planet became the Necromongers' next target they quickly evacuated all their followers to a desert moon of the planet. Raven had lied about going directly to New Mecca; before then, she'd gotten on the wrong ship and found herself not only in Nebulas 4, but traveling side-by-side with a member of the rebels. The woman had cared for Raven like she was her own daughter, and when they landed had instantly brought her into the rebel circle. Raven had only spent a few weeks with them, however, before they had had to be evacuated to the moon. The woman had gotten lost in the shuffle, and Raven knew now that she was either dead or converted. Now that Raven had been left without someone to care for her, the rebels had had no choice but to send her off to where her sister had first wanted her to be, in New Mecca. She had obeyed them, leaving in tears but not without a mission assigned to her, a mission she'd been faithfully working on since she was twelve.

She was a messenger between them and other rebel groups in the universe. Without her and others like her, the rebel force would disintegrate and their cause lost. They had given her the messenger bag to use, and she had dutifully kept it good shape and taken it with her everywhere, as she would never know when they would call on her to deliver a message and she had to be constantly prepared. There had even been some nights where they'd woken her up at two a.m. just so she could run a memo across town to someone.

"Wait… what? Rebel force? Why is there a rebel force, aren't the cops and mercs combining to bring 'em down?" Riddick asked, his eyes hidden behind the goggles but the confusion and surprise clearly etched on his face. Raven sighed.

"Do you really think everyone out there trusts them to take care of it? The last time the cops and mercs got together, they accidentally blew up a planet. Thank God it was already dead, but still! No, very few of us have faith in them. Those of us who were brave enough… or were just dragged in against our will… decided to take our fate into our own hands. The cops and mercs be damned; we're playing this game by _our_ rules." she said, stubborn conviction ringing in her voice as her green eyes hardened in determination. Riddick accepted the answer, understanding it and agreeing with her right away before moving on to his next one.

"Then did you ever tell Kyra about the rebels?" he asked. The driven look in her eyes fell into regret. She nodded.

"I did. I lied to you about that, too. Kyra didn't go looking for you because she thought she loved you. She went looking for you because she wanted to bring you back so you could help the rebels. She was convinced that once we had you on our side, we couldn't lose. We both know where that faith in you got her." Her reply was laced with a just a little bit of accusation, her eyes drifting downward as angry tears once again took up their post. Riddick fought against bowing his head in shame; he'd known all along that Kyra had had too much faith in him. He was the wrong kind of person to put trust in, but she just wouldn't listen. She never did.

"And, uh… The messenger thing. Why are the mercs dropping their responsibilities of stopping the Necros for you? What's so important about a little girl?" Riddick said, quickly getting off the topic of Kyra. Raven glared up at him at his words.

"One," she said, holding up a finger, "I am _not_ a little girl. I'm younger than her by two minutes, get over it already! And two, it's not what's important about me; it's what's important about what I do. Messengers are far underappreciated when it comes to warfare. Think; what do messengers do? Exactly that, they run messages back and forth between lines, fronts, officials, whatever. Why is that so important? Because if the people in charge can't deliver things to each other, orders can't be given, so no one will know what to do. Why is that bad? Because if no one knows what to do, the only thing that can follow is guesswork, which will lead to mistakes, which will lead to complete and total collapse of the institution. So you see? Messengers are far more important than people credit us for." she explained, crossing her arms defensively while lifting her chin a little. Riddick laced his fingers together, sitting down and resting his elbows on his knees. He looked at her for a while longer, trying to find any physical indication of deception. He found none.

"Any more questions?"

"Just one," he twitched one of his fingers, "How do they contact you for messages? Do they have some kind of collar on you or something?" he asked, looking her over. Raven grabbed her bag and turned it inside out, pointing to a little dark spot on its interior.

"See that? It's like a tracker. Whenever they want me, they enter in my identification code and send it to this. When it receives the code, it'll vibrate, kind of like those old cellular phone things. There was an outpost that was near my high school in New Mecca, so whenever they needed me I'd just have to get there, pick up the message and take it either to the receiver or another messenger who would carry it further." she said, turning her bag around properly and setting it down on her lap, her arms crossing protectively over it. Riddick lifted an eyebrow.

"Efficient, aren't you?" he muttered. Raven smiled a little.

"We're not all rag-tag amateur soldiers fighting the good fight. We do have our gracing moments of genius. The tracker also acts likes a dog tag of sorts. It we ever lose our bags or go missing ourselves, the tracker can be activated to send out a distress signal, and someone will come to help us."

"Then why haven't they come for you?" Riddick immediately questioned, considering the possibility that she had lied again and made a mistake. If that theory proved true he didn't think he'd be able to contain the urge to bury her in the wall. Raven's smile fell into a melancholy look.

"When that docking pilot attacked me, he stepped on my bag. He crushed the tracker. It doesn't work anymore, so even if they are looking for me they wouldn't be able to find me." she answered, running a sad, loving hand over her bag. Riddick's eyebrow fell to form a suspicious look on his face.

"What do you mean 'if'? I thought you said they'd come no matter what, especially if you went missing." he pressed. Raven looked up at him with a strange look on her face.

"They don't do that anymore. The Necros… they've started hiring out mercs to track down rebel messengers, and to bring us back to them for bounties higher than the one they had for you. They want the rebel force destroyed, and they understand that messengers are an integral part of keeping us going. The first couple messengers that disappeared, we just thought that they'd made stupid mistakes. Gotten careless. But then the disappearances got more violent, and quite obvious that they weren't accidental. You know; blood stains around the area, obvious signs of a struggle, the kind of stuff that can't be missed. That's when they put us all on high alert and told all the messengers to stay grounded until things looked clear. However, judging by the fact that the mercs are carting a picture of me and they went through the trouble of tracking us down, I'd say the muted activity of the messengers has done little to deter the Necromonger efforts. And even though the killings and kidnappings haven't stopped, the rebels have been forbidden to do anything about it. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good, right?" she answered, finishing by picking up the crinkled photo of herself and looking it over with a worried gaze.

Riddick watched her for a couple minutes, absorbing everything about her; the way her curling black hair fell over her face, the intensity of her green eyes, her black sweatshirt and brown cargo pants, her innocently attractive face that hid a certain strength behind it, a strength Riddick had only found in one other person. So, her life wasn't as calm and innocent as she'd led him to think. She had had her own share of adventure and uncertainty, and she'd also given a good showcase of just how smart she could be. After all, she'd been able to obey her sister's command to stay on New Mecca while at the same time playing a role in the potential fate of the universe. The corner of Riddick's mouth twitched in a proud smile; Raven wasn't the first one to jump into battles, but she wasn't inclined to remain an objective third party on the sidelines either. A good mix for certain cases, Riddick thought. The girl was stronger than she realized.

"Why do you do that?" she asked suddenly, drawing him out of his thoughts. Riddick sat up a little straighter and looked at her, grunting questioningly. Raven lifted an eyebrow.

"Stare at me for so long without saying anything. It's kind of creepy, in case you were wondering." she said again.

"I'm not staring at you; I'm staring at the air in front of you." he responded, rising to his feet and walking past her. Raven glared and kicked out at the back of his knee as he passed, making him jerk a little but not bringing him down as she had hoped.

"Smart-ass." she grumbled. Riddick smiled.

"Love you, too, kid." he said, knowing that the words would not only shock her but confuse and befuddle her to no end. His predictions were correct, too; Raven's jaw dropped when she heard him say that, her face going crimson and her head beginning to pound a little in time with her heartbeat. What had he just said? Love? As in, L-O-V-E _love_? Of course, he was joking, but hearing the words from his mouth made her feel… a little happy, like she wanted to smile. Raven had had crushes on guys before, a couple boyfriends in high school, but nothing like the burning warmth that spread out from her midriff to her chest when she thought about Riddick holding her in his arms, and them kissing passionately while rolling around on the ground-

Raven physically slapped herself across the face. What was she thinking?! Riddick was, like… at least 15 years older than her. That was gross! Raven shuddered, rolling her neck around in disgust at herself.

"Ewww…" she moaned, shaking her shoulders and head a little to clear the thoughts from her mind. It worked on the thoughts about sex, but not the ones about his age. It got her thinking; how old _was_ Riddick, really? All she knew about him came from what her sister had told her when they were twelve and little tidbits she'd managed to catch hold of between then and when she'd actually found him. Raven furrowed her brow and tilted her head, thinking about it and trying to work it out into a guesstimate through what little of her high school math she remembered. When her attempts failed, she decided to take a daring (more like stupid) chance and ask him for herself. The last time she'd pried into his past he's snapped violently at her, but Raven felt that she had bared everything to him, and now it was time for her to call in the debt. Jumping to her feet and hurrying out of the room before she could have time to change her mind, Raven followed after Riddick. A distant roll of thunder sounded as she passed by the giant, blackened hole in the wall which they had blockaded with furniture, and the slightly eerie scene made her hurry faster up the stairs and towards the oval room. She found Riddick there, setting up his blanket, and Raven blinked when she found that he'd already done hers.

"Hey," she said, pleasantly surprised as she walked over and sat down on it, "Thanks!" Riddick nodded at her in acknowledgement, not stopping what he was doing even as she nervously licked her lips and scooted closer to him.

"Um," her voice stuck in her throat from nervousness and anticipation, "You know, Riddick, I've just told you everything. I revealed and corrected all the lies, I filled in every blank page, there's nothing about me that you don't know now. So, I think we should even the score. I want to know about you, Riddick. I think it's only fair that I know everything that my sister never did, since obviously we're going to be spending a lot more time together than you and she did. The fact that you'll always care more about her is irrelevent." she gasped out quickly, ignoring it when he jumped to his feet. She felt hope rise up when he paused a little at her mention of him caring more about Kyra than her. Riddick wasn't denying it because they both knew it was true. Despite her being dead, Kyra would always have a deeper place in his heart. Raven knew it, understood it and respected it.

That didn't mean she didn't resent it.

"Seventeen," he suddenly responded. Raven blinked, "I was seventeen when I first ghosted someone. They were mercs, who had sold a bunch of kids that I knew into slavery for some extra cash. I was twelve when it happened, and I swore that I wouldn't stop until I had tracked their sorry asses down and smashed their skulls with my bare hands. I wound up stabbing them all, in the sweat spot. Did your sister tell you about that?"

"Left of the spine, fourth lumbar down, the abdominal aorta," Raven responded, nodding in recognition as she pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, "It's a gusher, or so she said. Kyra never actually used it on anyone." She missed the shifty look that passed over Riddick's face. He decided against bringing up Kyra's history; Raven had been traumatized enough for one day.

"That's where I first learned that it's the slowest, most painful way to kill someone. It's the ultimate way to physically torture them before they die. I slashed right through them all, and I went to the slam for it. But before, that, to give you the quick and ugly version, my mother abandoned me in a liquor store trash can on my home planet with my umbilical cord wrapped around my neck. She tried to strangle me, but lucky me: somebody found me and took me to their orphanage. That was where I met the kids who got sold off. Anyway, I'm sure you can fill in the rest for yourself; I killed in prison to stay alive, got my eyes shined, killed to get out, killed to steal a ship… You get it. That enough information for you?" he explained, looking up at her with a look she couldn't quite name. Raven knew he was expecting her to nod, but she had one more question.

"Just one more… How old are you, really? Kyra said she never knew." Raven quickly continued, ignoring the prickly feeling those black goggles gave her as they bored straight into her. Riddick moved on from setting up his blanket to making a fire, not answering until Raven had lowered her head, thinking that he wasn't ever going to respond.

"I was 25 on M6-117. You do the math." he said. Raven bit her lips to stop a smile; he'd actually told her his age! This was monumental! She quickly did the addition in her head; M6-117 was seven years ago, so 25 plus 7 was 32. That made him thirteen years older than her. Still weird, but not quite as gross as she had thought before. At least he wasn't a 40-something.

With a little nod of appreciation, Raven crawled back all the way onto her blanket as the fire began to give off some beginning smoke. She crawled under her blanket, changing into the T-shirt and boxers she wore for pajamas underneath so Riddick wouldn't see, and when she emerged, throwing her jeans and sweatshirt into a corner, she jumped back with a squeal when she found him leaning over her. Raven toppled backwards, breaking her fall on her arms as Riddick crawled towards her. She looked at him incredulously; what in the hell was he doing?

"Is your thirst satisfied?" he asked, his deep voice low and whispered. Raven nodded slowly, trying to stop her eyes from wondering towards his chest and muscular arms.

"Good-night, then." he continued, reaching up an arm as if to place a hand against her cheek. Raven's lips parted slightly as it came nearer to her, her heart pumping blood loudly to her shaking limbs, and she shut her eyes in anticipation of what might come, what might happen…

And then he picked up her clothes from behind her, stood and shoved them into a bag where all their other dirty clothes were being kept. Raven felt the cold of the autumn night hit her full-force in the chest, and when she realized he was no long so close her eyes fluttered open and her arms gave out. She fell with a thump onto her back, her hair fanning out underneath her like a pillow. Riddick looked at her over his shoulder.

"You okay?" he asked quietly. Raven gave a little squeak in response, and he took it as a yes. Tossing another stick on the fire, he kicked off his own shoes and laid back on his blanket, turning over onto his side and clenching his hand instinctively around the handle of his shiv. With the recent attack of the mercs so fresh in their minds, Riddick was taking no chances. He heard Raven take a shuddering breath, crawling slowly under her blanket and curling herself into a protective little ball. Riddick released a sigh, shame rising up in his gut. Why he had just done that, gotten up so close to her that he could count the eyelashes she had, he didn't know. He just knew that he had done it, and whether either of them would admit or not, neither of them had been objective to it. He had felt Raven's attraction and rising body heat more than seen it. Her face was still flushed, he could tell even though her back was to him. Riddick himself had just barely been able to keep a grip on it, holding back against the primal call for a woman's warmth. Raven was pushing him just by being there, and when he heard her start breathing more rhythmically in sleep, Riddick turned over onto his side to watch her. The firelight cast a complimenting glow over her face and black hair, the blanket being tucked up to her chin leaving everything underneath to his imagination. Before too long Riddick got silently to his bare feet and walked stealthily over to her for a closer look.

He got down on his hands and knees, putting one hand on her other side so that he was poised directly above her sleeping form. He bent his head low to see every part of her that he could. Her eyes were moving rapidly underneath her eyelids in dreaming, her nostrils fluttering in and out with breath, and some hair flung across her cheek. Riddick reached up and brushed it away gently, his fingers tracing over her skin slightly. The strands of curling black hair fell against her shoulder, and Riddick jumped back a little when she stirred. She turned her face over towards him, her lips parting and a small moan escaping as he saw lightning flash from the corner of his eye.

And the next thing he knew he was pressing his lips as gently as he could against hers, savoring the feeling of them. They were smooth yet a little rough, something that unsurprisingly turned him on a little. He kept barely five seconds of contact, as he didn't want her waking up and freaking out on him, but he couldn't deny that they were the most tempting five seconds of his life. This girl… this _woman_ had no idea what she was doing to him. No idea how close he was to breaking.

"I've told you a thousand times, kid," he whispered gently, looking over her after stripping off the goggles and laying them aside, "You're too heavy a sleeper." Looking at her a few seconds more, he turned away slowly and was about to rise to his feet when he heard something most surprising.

"Not so heavy as you might think," she murmured, and when Riddick looked back at her he saw her green eyes wide open and alert, her tongue drifting over her lips as she recalled what he'd just done. He opened his mouth to explain, but she got there first.

"Shut up." she said quickly, jumping to her feet and pressing her lips hungrily against his. Riddick responded instantly, wrapping his arms around her and returning the kiss. She sighed into his mouth, her fingers curling into the black material of his shirt before pulling at it. He obeyed, lifting it over his head and throwing it away before pushing her back onto the floor. He crashed down on top of her, pushing her into the floor as their lips remained lock in a battle of willpower, each of them pushing the other to their limits to see which one of them would give first. They wound up caving at the same time, and as the storm outside finally broke and ravaged the house they had been seeking shelter in, so did the storm inside them, making the heavens swirl and the ground underneath them shake.

_You all have no idea how hard it was for me to write that. But it had to happen, Riddick and Raven wouldn't let me move on with the story until I put it in, and it is very influential to later events. _ _God, I'm so embarrassed. Feel free to comment and flame, though, and I have anonymous review opened now, in case anyone was reading silently along. The reviews I get really help me (shout out to Starnyx and reagan!), so feel free to write out your thoughts, good and bad. Next chapter will probably take a couple weeks to get up... or fewer if I get lots of reviews... hint hint._


	10. Chapter 9

_This chapter has one point, to introduce more people who will have a big affect on the plot. Like, a HUGE affect. The only reason why I opened it with Riddick and Raven is because... well, I _ _wanted to write another scene with them. What can I say, I have fun with it. This one's a bit more descriptive than the previous one, but not like pornographic or anything. Enjoy._

Light filtered through her eyelids, waking her up. Raven's green eyes fluttered open, squinting against the morning sun that was shining painfully in her face. She covered her eyes with her hand, stretching the other one up above her head as she stretched her legs and twisted her torso around. She moaned at the satisfying tug on her muscles, letting out a breath as she flopped back into a comfortable position. She pulled the blanket closer against her naked body, turning over onto her other side to avoid the-

Naked?

Raven's eyes snapped open as she jolted upright on the floor. She clutched the material to her chest, her knees pulling up inward as her body folded in on itself in a protective stance. Her breath came hard out of shock at the sudden remembering of last night: her toes curling as Riddick kissed every part of her body, their rough, violent kisses, the delicious place of heaven she'd visited twice. She blushed in embarrassment. She had succumbed to something so primal, so animalistic that she had never known existed inside of her. It was the most intense night of her life, full of senses that she'd never experienced before and an enlightenment that had filled up every single particle of her being.

"Sleep well?" His sudden appearance in the doorway made her jump. Raven turned to look at him, wearing the same crinkled clothes as last night and his arms crossed over his broad chest. She didn't know how to respond; yes, she'd slept well, only it had been with him. How should she answer? Deciding to go for the half-way point, she shrugged. Riddick smirked.

"I was that bad, huh?" he said. Raven blinked and shook her head.

"No, I didn't mean that. I- I mean, I didn't mean that you were bad, you were… you were… Yeah. I just meant that, you know, we… and- and of course neither of us got very much sleep. So, when I shrugged I didn't mean that I didn't enjoy it, I did enjoy it. It's just that you question was… was confusing, a- and… Oh, boy." she managed to stop her rambling gibberish, realizing she was stuttering so bad that Riddick probably didn't understand a word of what she'd said. He laughed a little, walking into the room towards her. Raven scooted backwards, looking up at him with wide eyes. He stopped and shook his head, a smile playing on his lips.

"I'm just coming for this," he said, reaching over for his shiv, "I forgot it." He took the blade in his hand and then backed away from her, taking an apple out of his pocket and beginning to peel it as he leaned leisurely against the wall. An awkward silence ensued, prompting Raven to duck under her blanket and slip back into her pajamas. When she reemerged she swept her hair into a ponytail and took to folding their blankets, putting them away and cracking open the window to let in some fresh, cool autumn air. The thunderstorm last night had cleansed everything, making the sun seem brighter and leaving a twinkling layer of rain on all the trees. Raven, forgetting for a moment her position, leaned out and took a deep breath, smiling as she did so. It was only when the window sill had given way that she realized she was going to fall. She opened her mouth to let out a scream, but as soon as she began to topple forward Riddick had both his arms wrapped around her, holding her tightly against his chest. They were both breathing a little heavily from the scare, Raven's entire body shaking and Riddick burying his face in the hollow between her neck and shoulder.

"Don't you ever do that again." he muttered into her skin, his hot breath tickling her a bit. Raven realized that they were clinging to each other and she immediately squirmed away, ducking under his arms and walking away by a few steps. He looked at her as she self-consciously hugged herself, her large white T-shirt falling to her thighs over the blue boxers. Riddick crossed his arms as well.

"Was last night your first time?" he asked. Raven's head shot up, her brow furrowing. She didn't respond.

"Last night. Were you a virgin?" he asked outright. Raven paused, and then slowly shook her head at him. Riddick felt a rush of relief fill him.

"No. I was with this one guy in high school. A couple times, because we were in love. Not deeply, but enough. We kind of drifted apart, though. Why?" she replied. He looked at her in a strange way before answering.

"Just wondering." he said before turning and leaving the room. Raven watched him go, tucking a stray strand of curling black hair behind her ear. She blinked and thought to herself. Why had he been concerned about her virginity? He'd done a poor job of hiding his emotions; she'd seen the look of relief that passed fleetingly over his features and his shoulders relax. Was he worried that, if he had been her first, she would cling to him? Fall for him, maybe?

"Too late," she whispered, looking down at her bare feet. No, she didn't love Riddick, but she did feel something for him. Something more than that of a sister or of a friend. She knew he had to feel something for her, too. The way he'd grasped her hand in his and kissed her on the lips afterwards had been too gentle to be from a man who only had physical interest in her. Even if he only saw her as a companion with some benefits, it was more than Raven had ever expected might come from their time together. Sniffling a little, she changed into a pair of jeans and a form-fitting gray T-shirt before plodding quietly down the stairs. She found Riddick munching noisily on his apple in the kitchen. He looked up as she entered, watching her walk past him, to the fridge and take out an apple of her own. She turned and made eye contact with him as she took a crunching bite of her own fruit, each of them too stubborn to give up.

"So," Raven finally said after swallowing, "Are we training today?" Riddick smiled.

"Absolutely. You didn't think I would let you off just because your hips are aching, did you?" he said. Raven smiled back.

"Please, Riddick," she replied as he walked towards her by three steps, "If it's anyone who should be in pain, it's you." His grin widened as the undertones to their conversation became blatantly revealed.

"Is that so? And why exactly am I the one who should be aching?" Raven leaned back against the counter, placing her hands on it and cocking her hips in an unintentionally provocative way.

"Because we both know that the animal in you wants more of what you can't have." Her last word ended in a shriek that was mixed with a laugh as Riddick pounced on her, picking her up over his shoulder and swinging her around down to the ground.

"We have… have to train." Raven gasped out between kisses that were pretty damn close to driving her crazy. Riddick trailed a line of fire down her side as he slid down the length of her body.

"We are."

"What?" He chuckled deep in his throat as he bit at the now revealed flesh of her hip, making Raven gasp.

"Raven, do me a favor." he said, looking up at her. The green-eyed woman tilted her head so that she could see him, "Take your own advice, and shut the hell up."

…

"What do we do with the Ellers and the man?" Neil said, stepping up to Braddock from behind with a lit cigarette in his mouth. Braddock glanced casually over at his right-hand-man, saying nothing. He only shoved his hand in the man's pocket, dug out his pack of cigarettes and lighter, and took one for himself. Braddock was a strict leader, but he did allow his men certain little luxuries.

"Don't call 'em that." he finally responded after taking a strong, satisfying drag. He was referring to the term Neil had used, 'Ellers'. It was a derogatory term used to refer to Elementals. Yes, they were different, and yes, they always managed to manipulate politics and governmental processes to their advantages (especially those damn Air Elementals), but they were a relatively peaceful people who accepted and made decisions based on the greater good for all races. They deserved at least a little respect, Braddock thought. Neil blinked and scoffed at the man's words, but he didn't challenge him.

"Well, then what do we do with the two philosophers we got down there and the man who came with 'em?" he said, changing his words but not his attitude. Braddock suppressed the growing agitation with Neil, reminding himself that Neil was one of the best on their team. Sighing instead, releasing the smoke through his nostrils, Braddock turned from the window he was staring out of and walked back to the training room.

"Braddock, sir," Neil tried a more respectful approach, "Sir, what do we do with them? The man keeps screaming about how he didn't do anything and the Elementals keep telling him that 'everything will work out in due time'. They're driving everybody crazy!" Neil explained, emphasizing his point with some exaggerated hand gestures. Braddock had been hoping on getting back to his work out, but it would seem not. He turned around to face the other, younger man, taking in his light brown hair and blue eyes that were all too eager to prove himself by any means necessary. Braddock groaned.

"Take me to 'em." he said. Neil smiled slightly, and Braddock knew it was because he was hoping he'd be given permission to torture them into telling them secrets the people probably didn't have. The man was so desperate to prove his own strength and heartlessness, but Braddock was not leading a crew of mercs here. They were specially trained cops, taught everything from hand-to-hand combat to how to memorize information and recite it back at the drop of a hat. They were only to use cruelty if cruelty was used on them first, and seeing as how their three prisoners were peace-seeking Elementals and a young man who seemed too confused and scared to do anything but yell, Braddock doubted they'd have to worry about using physical force on them. They had been relieved of duty on the front lines against the Necromongers to take this special assignment.

Neil led his commander down to the brig of the ship with a lighter spring in his step, even saying 'Hi' merrily to the other crew members they passed. Braddock rolled his eyes at the man as they turned down a corridor and went through a door, stomping down the metal stairs into the lower part of the ship.

"Hey," Braddock said as the lights switched on automatically and illuminated the cells they had placed the captives in. They had put the two Elementals in one together and the man in one across from them, and at his approach they looked up at the same time.

"Is it nice in the daylight?" one of the Elementals responded as he drew closer. Her red-orange hair, coal-black eyes and dark skin gave her an unearthly appeal, the clothing she wore obviously meant to keep her cool and to highlight the most attractive parts of her body. Braddock looked her over; Fire Elementals always did like to show off their assets. The man sitting next to her on the bench stood.

"Would it be so much as to request that we have something to eat?" he asked, the patience in his words obviously sincere. Braddock's blue eyes automatically roved over him as well, a result of his training to memorize the appearance of every person he met. His skin was white and his shoulder-length light brown hair was tied back away from his face. The knee-length tunic he was wearing started out as white, but as it went farther down the color shifted to blue, going almost black at the hem. He wore a leather belt around his waist and wore leather sandals, and he was holding onto a staff of sorts. A Water Elemental; strange finding one of those accompanying a Fire. Braddock nodded slowly, once up and once down. The Water smiled gratefully and sat back on the bench, looking to the Fire and whispering something to her that made her glare. Braddock ignored them and turned to the man in the other cell.

"And what about you?" he said, leaning his arm against the bars and peering in at the man. He was young, probably only in his early twenties, with reddish-brown hair that hung in his stormy-gray eyes. He looked up at Braddock, opening his mouth to say something but pausing and closing it.

"Lost his voice from screaming so much, sir," Neil said from behind him. Braddock grunted, still looking him over. He had red-brown hair that hung in his stormy gray eyes and was muscular, his strength probably gained from hard labor as a child. A lot of the people they were sent out to get were juvenile delinquents, with criminal histories going back to their single-digit ages. Most of the boys were put on chain-gangs on one of the mining planets. That was probably what happened to this guy, too. The look in his eyes was hard and defensive, but at the same time questioning and curious, almost innocently so. Some strange people the anonymous caller had wanted out of the way. Two polar-opposite Elementals and a young man who looked like he was still mentally caught in the transition phase between teenager and adult. Braddock shook his head of graying blonde hair a little, pushing himself away from the cell and turning back to Neil.

"Give them some dinner. Other than that don't let them out of their cells." Braddock said while walking up the stairs. Neil obeyed, grinning pervertedly at the Fire but hurrying away when the air around her began to spark and waver with the heat emanating from her. The Water calmed her down after Neil left, reminding her that they had to focus on getting the man sitting in the other cell to trust them by the end of their journey with Braddock. If they couldn't get him to put his life in their hands by that time, everything would've been for nothing…

_Sorry if the sudden transition to these completely random people confused anyone. But trust me, without these guys Raven and Riddick would die. And we don't want that, now do we? No. Anyways, review/ flame if you want. Doesn't really matter to me, but to be honest, it does help my morale at low points. So if you want to, go ahead. I accept everyone's opinions._

_P.S: Sorry about the crappy term, Ellers. I honestly couldn't think of anything else, so I put down the first thing that came to mind.  
_


	11. Chapter 10

_Not too sure about this chapter. I think it sounds... off. I dunno, maybe I'm imagining it or something. Anyway, it's rather long, goes into a lot of detail with certain things. To those reading, hope you enjoy._

Riddick tried turning over onto his side when he woke up. Instead he was stopped by something small clinging to him, two arms wrapped around him and a head of curling black hair resting on his chest. He looked back down and sighed at the sight of Raven, exhausted, naked, and sleeping deeply. She had tightened her arms around him when he had pulled away, adjusting her position and reaffirming her hold on him. Riddick didn't want to wake her, but he was too restless to stay put, so he disentangled himself from her and walked away as quietly as he could. He pulled on his clothes, rekindled the dying fire to help keep her warm and then left for the sitting room that Raven had claimed as her own.

It was dim in the house, as it was very early in the morning. Probably October by now, judging by the temperatures of the days and nights. Riddick made his way quietly down the stairs, unconsciously keeping one ear open for any sound from Raven above as he reached the bottom and turned towards the room. He entered slowly, almost as if he feared punishment for entering the forbidden territory. When nothing happened he walked further in, kicking a pillow out of his way and sitting on the couch. He looked around, nodding his head.

"Nice," he commented on what Raven had managed to do with it. She'd righted all the furniture and done her best to dust the walls and the mantle of the fireplace. There were curtains over the windows that he remembered had been holey and torn, but she had replaced them with some light red ones that reflected the sunrise well. Girl could be an interior decorator or something, if she lived long enough to get away from him.

He looked upwards when he heard the pipes begin to bang and whine, signaling that she was up and taking a shower. Riddick smiled; would she be expecting him to come and join her? If she was, she'd be disappointed. There had rarely been a day where they hadn't had an encounter in some way since that first night. They never planned them out or set specific timeframes, it just happened. That was what kept them both interested. Despite that, however, Riddick thought she needed some time to herself.

He was about to stand and get them both something to eat when a shadow crossing in front of the window stopped him. His senses heightened automatically, Riddick jumping to his feet and moving swiftly but silently to stand next to the window. He stood at its side so he couldn't be seen through it, taking out his shiv and tilting it so he could use the age-old tactic of seeing what was behind him in the reflective surface. At first he saw nothing; merely the bare trees, the rising sun and a couple birds. He saw nothing out of the ordinary. He waited a few more seconds for something to appear, and when nothing did he lowered his shiv and turned his head away. At the last second, though, he saw part of one of the trees move, which meant it wasn't a tree. It was a person. They were being staked out.

On instinct, he moved away from the window, but he knew the reaction came too late; he'd been seen. He made eye contact with the man, and at the same time both of them swore and then ducked out of sight. Riddick swore again, pressing himself against the wall as tight as possible. He didn't know how long they had been watching them. Probably for the last couple nights, which meant they'd had plenty of time to figure out their weaknesses. And currently, Riddick only had two weaknesses, one of which was dead.

He had to get her out of here.

Taking a deep breath, Riddick raced from the room. He didn't know when they'd launch the attack, if they would do it at all, but better safe than sorry, he thought. Those goddamn mercs just didn't know when to fucking quit, did they?! He took the stairs three at a time, replacing his shivs only to avoid stabbing himself with them. He grabbed one of the towels Raven had set outside the bathroom door as he reached it, banging through the door and stomping towards the shower. Without wasting a second, Riddick wrenched open the shower door, wrapped the towel around a screaming Raven, picked her up under her knees and swung her out.

"What the hell are you doing?!" she hollered at him, gripping the towel around herself and flipping sopping strands of hair out of her eyes. Riddick took out his shivs again and turned away from her back towards the door.

"The mercs are back," he said bluntly, "Get dressed, grab your shiv and get back here. Be prepared to kill to keep your life." Raven stared up at him incredulously, her green eyes wide and blinking.

"What? They're… they're back? But you said-" he rushed forward and wrapped a hand around Riddick's wrist, her grip tight with anxiety and worry. Riddick jerked out of her hold as though burned before she could finish her last sentence, wanting to avoid the topic of more trust wrongly placed in his hands.

"Get dressed!" he screamed back at her, grabbing her shoulder and shoving her away from him into a wall. She gasped as she hit it, her back banging painfully and her eyes squeezing shut. Riddick ignored it and charged back down the stairs, his teeth gritting and the animalistic blood-thirst rising up in his psyche. He grabbed one of his guns before going back down, quickly loading it with the special Necromonger rounds and clutching it dangerously tight in his hand.

His heart pounded in his head as he reached the bottom and darted out of sight into a darkened corner. He stripped off his goggles, his eye-shine permitting him to see clearly out of the dark to see if and when they would make their appearance. It wasn't too long before Raven came storming down as well, her wet hair tied up in a bun high on her head, a shiv held confidently in her hand, and wearing clothes that resembled those of convicts: a black tank top, form fitting black pants and a pair of heavy boots. Riddick got a rare shock when he first saw her; he could've sworn, she was looking more like her fraternal twin everyday. Shaking off the emotions, he quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her back into the corner with him. He didn't hold her and she didn't fight, but instead she weaseled away to stand next to him, raising her shiv in a copy-cat move of what he was doing. All was quiet after that, the only audible sounds their breathing and some creaks and groans from the house's old framework.

"Riddick," Raven whispered, licking her dry lips nervously, "Are… are you sure you saw the mercs?" The man turned to her, the look on his face unreadable in the dark but the silvery sheen of his eyes enough to make her feel helpless.

"Listen." he responded. Raven obeyed, rolling her eyes. They were silent for another eternity-in-a-minute, when what he had reportedly seen proved true: shouting was heard from outside, all of them men and the words 'bounty', 'slam', 'ghost him' and 'pay-day' heard clearly. Raven tensed as she realized they were coming closer, and she was standing with a raised weapon. If they saw her, which eventually they would, she would have to fight. For real.

"You ready for this?" Riddick suddenly hissed to her. Raven jumped a little and glanced at him, afraid to take her eyes from the door but at the same time afraid to look.

"I… I don't think I have a choice, do I?" she replied, surprising herself with a nervous laugh. Riddick shrugged.

"Not really. Just keep one thing in mind," he whispered back. Raven turned towards him, waiting for him to go on. He looked directly at her, their eyes locking.

"If you have to go down, you go down fighting. There's no better way, understand?" Raven smiled a little, nodding. She blinked when Riddick suddenly took her hand in his, gave it a reassuring squeeze, and then pulled her closer to him for a rough kiss on the lips. He wanted to taste her one more time before his debt to Hades was put on the call-in list again. Raven responded just as eagerly, entering a wrestling match between their tongues before they both broke apart at the same time. Each acted as though it hadn't happened, their full attention returning to the impending fight but their hands remaining unconsciously locked around one another.

"Get ready," Riddick muttered to her, his whole body tensing in a surge of power that Raven could feel in the air. She shivered; sometimes she thought Riddick simply wasn't human. He couldn't be, with the fluidity and relaxation of his movements when he fought. And then there was the fact that he had fought against the Necromonger King- and he'd won. That in and of itself was a mind-blower. Now, why he had refused the throne was beyond her. With it, he could've stopped the Necromongers for good. They'd have to listen to him; by blood spilled, he was their rightful King. He could've saved the entire universe for good, as now- though the Necromongers had been inactive for some mysterious reason- everyone was starting to get nervous. They were no longer secure in their new-found freedom from fear, and the people were beginning to whisper about when the Necromongers would move again. If Riddick had accepted the throne, he could've stopped that.

Kyra didn't die for nothing, Goddamn it!

"Here it comes," Riddick hissed, snapping Raven back to the present before her anger could reach crying level. She blinked and focused just in time for the explosion of bullets through the door and walls.

They both fell to the floor on reflex, beginning to crawl along it underneath the firing shots towards the door. Right between it and the wall there were blank spots, places where bullets weren't coming out of. Riddick pushed Raven towards the first one on the left side of the door before continuing to his own spot. When the firing stopped, and Raven leaned her head out to look questioningly at Riddick, he lifted a corner of his mouth in a smile that was neither reassuring nor discouraging. Before Raven could even formulate a question in her mind, however, the mercs kicked the door down and raced into the house, spreading out to cover as much ground as possible and stupidly separating into single searchers or couples. Since Raven and Riddick were hidden in corners next to the door, they were not seen, but when Raven suddenly heard a neck snap and someone gently lower down to the floor, she knew Riddick's plan: take them out one by one, don't get caught. That plan made her feel a lot better than the original one of 'charge head-first into battle and try not to get your ass murdered'.

Raven followed after Riddick, trotting along silently to keep up with him and stopping whenever he singled out a next target. He had gotten through four of them when one of the mercs turned swiftly and fired at them. Riddick pulled Raven down to the floor, then cut at the man's ankles with his shiv. Blood spurted, the tendons snapped and the man went down with a howl of pain. Raven looked with wide eyes at his feet, and knew that he would never walk again if Riddick let him live. Which, mercifully, he didn't.

After slicing through the man's throat, Riddick stood up straight and gave Raven a look.

"Someone will've heard that. The gunshots and the scream. You remember what I taught you with that shiv, right?" he said, nodding his head at the knife in her hand. Raven glanced at it.

"I guess so..." she trailed off. Riddick shook his head as the sound of distant footsteps reached their ears.

"No guessing. Like you said: guesswork leads to mistakes, which leads to disaster. Do you know what to do, Rae?" His use of a nickname for her startled Raven, making her blink her green eyes in astonishment. Slowly, she nodded just in time for the remaining mercs to race around the corner.

The ensuing fight was all one big blur to Raven, full of screaming and blood and swearing. She knew someone got her along her cheek, her black hair coming undone from its ponytail and the strands sticking to her face and neck from the sweat and blood. She tripped over something, a body most likely, and fell over backwards. She got lucky, though, as the merc she was fighting fell on top of her and let her blade go straight through his heart. Pushing him off and scrambling to her feet, Raven caught a glimpse of Riddick snapping one guy's neck and then turning swiftly and burying his shiv in the ribcage of the one trying to sneak up behind him. Raven shivered again; he was way too calm and way too good. Yeah, no way was Riddick entirely human.

"There... are others..." gasped the dying man. Their attention snapped to him.

"What do you mean?" Riddick pressed, his eyes narrowing. The man, starting to shake and some blood running from his mouth, grinned insanely.

"We were only the... the first batch. There's another group of us... coming up the hill... with explosives. They'll blow this house sky-high, and they ain't gonna stop, Riddick! This payday's too... damn big. Who'da thought we'd get offered so much for one... one little girl?" He laughed crazily before Riddick took the Necromonger gun and shot the man in the throat, killing him this time and pushing his body away in disgust. Raven felt her heart begin to pound in her head. Riddick looked at her with a confusing mixture of emotions on his face.

"Why are they so determined to get you?" he whispered more to himself than to her. Raven slumped her shoulders in exhaustion and bewilderment as an explosion shook the house beneath them. Okay, he wasn't lying about the explosives. Raven repeated Riddick's question in her head: Why her? Before anything else happened, Riddick had her hand in his and was racing with her down the hallway towards the stairs for a quick escape. They were nearing them when she felt the strange absence of weight on her shoulder.

Her messenger bag... She'd forgotten it!

Raven jerked out of Riddick's hold and spun around, racing back to the oval-shaped room and ignoring his angry shouts to come back. Another explosion made her fall to her knees, this time the bright heat of fire bursting through a nearby window and making her run onward. She reached the room and quickly put all of her stuff together, throwing the bag over her shoulder and running as fast as her legs could carry her back to where she had left Riddick.

He was standing at the foot of the steps, shooting through the hole in the wall and dodging bullets flying back at him. Raven swept her hair back into its ponytail and flew down the stairs. At first she forgot that they were being shot at, but when Riddick grabbed her with one hand and stepped protectively in front of her, and she heard the hiss of pain he released when a bullet hit his leg, she remembered. The immediate guilt was enough to make her close her eyes against it; she'd been stupid again, and this time she'd gotten Riddick, maybe the last person in the universe who she truly trusted, hurt. She wanted to apologize, but she would have to wait until they weren't fighting for their lives.

Raven stood with her back pressed against Riddick's until the gunfire ceased for a second. Riddick turned then and pushed her towards the hallway.

"They have to reload. Go, Rae, go!" he hollered, pushing her farther down the hallway. Raven obeyed, taking off at a sprint with Riddick close behind her, his gun still raised in case any surprise firing occurred. Luckily, it didn't, and they were able to make it out of the house without being noticed. They stopped for breath just outside the backdoor, Raven leaning her arms on her knees and her chest heaving.

"Where... do we go... from... here?" she asked between breaths. Riddick looked around, then jerked his head back towards the front of the house.

"To the landing dock, where Craig attacked you. The mercs had to get here somehow, but that doesn't mean they'll be leaving the same way." He answered, taking off again. Raven groaned and ran after him, trying to ignore the stitch in her side and the stinging pain that was starting to take affect on the cut across her cheek. She knew he meant they'd be 'borrowing' their ship, but Raven felt uneasy about it. After all, if they were to run into anyone, they'd have to explain who they were, why they were flying a merc vessel not registered to them, what they were doing in this part of the universe, and why the 'Captain' looked mysteriously like convict Richard B. Riddick. Somehow, Raven felt that wouldn't be too good.

She had no chance to voice her concerns, as Riddick was running faster then she'd ever seen and she was still having trouble keeping up. They couldn't talk, they had to conserve all their energy for the run.

So Raven followed him. She turned when he turned, she jumped when he jumped, and she fought against the screaming pain in her legs and the stinging of her cut and the aching of her breaths, all to keep up with him. She wouldn't stop, she wouldn't die. She couldn't, because she knew Riddick wouldn't wait for her. That cold bastard didn't wait for anyone.

"Hold it!" Riddick suddenly shouted, throwing out an arm and stopping so suddenly that Raven didn't have time to hear him. She ran right into his arm, hitting her chest and rebounding back onto the ground. She laid there, her entire body aching and screaming at her to not get up, breathing heavily and sweat pouring down her body. Riddick looked over his shoulder at her, lifting an eyebrow. Raven glared at him.

"What?" she snapped.

"Just thought you might want a breather. We're almost to the dock, though... Can you make it?" he said. Raven pounded her fists on the dirt, pushing her up with what little strength she had left.

"Yes, I can make it, Goddamn it! Now hurry up!" Her voice was shrill and full of panic, agitation, and exhaustion. Riddick bared his teeth at her, and Raven returned the favor before he pulled her to her feet by her shirt front and dragged her along behind him the rest of the way.

"Did they even realize we left?" she asked as they cleared the dead forest. Riddick slowed down to a fast walk, letting her go.

"Dunno. By now definitely, but it'll probably take them a couple more minutes to think we might've come here. Idiots. There's their ship, get on." He pushed her forward towards the vessel, racing up the ramp after her and sitting next to her in the pilot's seat when she collapsed in the passenger chair. She buckled herself in, blinking as he switched on the ship and turned all the right knobs and pressed all the right buttons to get it into take-off mode.

"You can fly?" she asked. Riddick shrugged.

"How do you think I got away from the fucking Necros?" he responded as the ship began to whine and roar. Raven opened her mouth to speak again, but she shut it and leaned back in her seat, clutching her bag in her shaking arms and staring out of the windshield as they lifted up, burned through the atmosphere, and entered the inky blackness of space. Riddick said something to her, but Raven had closed her eyes and given into the call of sleep. She wondered what could possibly happen next before she fully drifted off, Riddick's breathing helping lull her away.

_Tell me what you think in a review if you wanna. Or in a flame... either one, whichever you think the story merits. Thank you to those who have reviewed in the past, and thank you to the people who read so much and make my story hits jump by the hundreds whenever I update a chapter. You all really help my confidence. _


	12. Chapter 11

_Not meaning to be demanding or hypocritical, but would it kill you guys to comment? Every time I upload a chapter, my hits will jump by hundreds, but I'll get maybe one or two reviews. Kinda discouraging..._

_Anyway, hope you enjoy it. I'm building up to something huge, so if you don't review at least keep reading._

When she woke, her eyes remained closed. Raven didn't want to open them, she was afraid she might see something terrible. She'd seen too much horror in the past few months, enough to last her a lifetime. Sleeping was the one place she found peace. Every night since she was a little girl living in the dump they called a house with her parents and sister, Raven had longed for night so she could descend into a dreamless, entirely restful sleep. She'd never been disappointed... well, except for actually waking up. That was hard every morning, to drag herself out of bed and not admit that she felt like she was bleeding inside...

"I know you're awake, Rae. Now get up and help me." Riddick's deep baritone voice shook through her chest, making her stir unwillingly. She lifted a hand and dug the heel of it into her eyes, rubbing them as she turned over onto her back and sighed. When she squinted through her eyelids up at the goggled man standing above her, she groaned.

"What's the matter?" he asked. Raven shook her head.

"Nothing. I was just hoping to get a couple more hours of sleep, that's all." She forced herself into a sitting position as she spoke, running her fingers through her thick black hair a little to get some of the knots out. Riddick had moved away towards the rear of the small ship, which she now recognized as a skiff. So, they hadn't taken the actual ships the mercs had come in, just their escape vessel. Raven swung her legs over the edge of the pull-out bed she'd slept in for the past couple nights, turning to watch what Riddick was doing. He was crouched over by the place the fuel cells were kept, the lids opened so you could see the actual cells. Most of them had blinking red lights on them, something that made Raven blink and sit up straighter in sudden awareness.

"Why are a lot of them red?" she asked.

"They're out." he explained as he fiddled with one of them. Raven noted that of the fifteen or so cells, eleven of them were red, and two were yellow.

"I'm guessing sine there are only two greens... we're almost out?" she muttered, her voice shaking. They were stuck in the middle of space on a stolen merc ship, about to run out of fuel and crash into oblivion. Great. Abso-fucking-lutely great.

"You know what this means, right?" Riddick asked, standing and kicking one of the doors closed. Raven shook some hair out of her eyes and gave him a hopeless look.

"We resign ourselves to a tragic, painful death?" Riddick lifted an eyebrow at her response.

"Well, you're just a cup of tea and sugar this morning, aren't you?" he said, pinching her cheek and earning a growl before continuing, "No. It means we steal another ship." Raven blinked again as she stood, running her fingers through her hair and grabbing hold of the shoulder strap of her messenger bag.

"Are you serious? We're just racking up the felonies, now, aren't we?" she mumbled under her breath as she followed Riddick into the cockpit, taking her place beside him in the passenger seat.

"You get used to it. And besides, it's not like we're gonna have to wait. There's a ship about ten or fifteen kilometers from here. If I can just hack into their system... disable the alarms and... and open their docking bay... There. Done." He pressed some buttons, flipped a couple switches, and typed some stuff into the ships computer database before a smug smile spread across his lips. Raven only stared, deciding not to bother asking how he knew how to hack the complex workings of modern-day ships. He was, after all, Richard B. Riddick.

In only a couple more minutes, the other ship came into view, and it was huge. At first she had thought it was a cruise-liner, carrying anywhere upwards of a thousand passengers. The thought gave her a moment of panic, as she doubted even Riddick could fight off and control that many at one time. When they got closer, however, using the merc's handy cloaking device so the ship wouldn't pick them up, and she saw the lack of decoration on it, Raven relaxed. It wasn't a liner, and it was way too big for a merc vessel, which only meant it was a commercial ship. In this uninhabited part of the universe, those ships usually had little protection up and a low number of crew, so taking it shouldn't be too difficult. And it was bound to have full cells, being so big.

When Riddick maneuvered the ship into the docking bay, the loud bang as it connected itself to the ship and the annoyingly chipper female voice welcoming them to the Greyson-Ulton sounding, Riddick grabbed her arm and practically ripped her from the seat. They raced out of the opening door, their hurried footsteps echoing in the spacious docking bay, heading for the hold of the ship.

"Riddick," Raven panted out between steps, "Are you sure we weren't detected?"

"Positive. All we have to do is make it to the cockpit, get the crew out of the way, and we're good to go." he responded without looking back at her. As they raced onwards, Raven couldn't help but wonder to herself if he wasn't being a little overconfident and, if he wasn't and they succeeded, where could they possibly go next?

* * *

"Captain, we have a breech! A merc ship just docked illegally in our bay, but our scanners say there's no one in there." Neil gasped, following after Braddock like a puppy as the older man left his office and marched determinedly towards the arsenal.

"Have we found them yet?" he asked calmly. Braddock paused to speak through an intercom, telling all crew members to get their asses to the arsenal to pick up weapons and other gear, just in case of a fight.

"Our scanners are working through the ship right now. Those bastards disabled our alarms and our detection devices, the only reason we got alerted is because someone heard the bay doors grinding open and a ship docking." answered Neil as he pulled on his own shield mask and took up a gun. The other twenty crew members arrived in a rush, each of them grabbing their assigned gear and standing in front of Braddock in a single-file line. Neil jumped in the front as Braddock swept a critiquing eye over all of the men.

"You were trained for this, men. You are an elite squad of police officers, trained harder than most people can even survive against. You know how to fight and you know how to win, so get out there and defend this ship!" he yelled. The speech was short and not entirely ornate, but now was not a time for eloquence and so the men made due. They shouted in agreement, all of them racing out of the arsenal for the bay. Braddock watched with a welling up of pride before following them.

They sprinted through the halls and down the stairways as one force, the pounding of their feet rivaling that of an elephant stampede in volume and intimidation. The men were not afraid of dying, only of losing their ship and captain; as they had been taught. So when they came upon the last corner before entering the passage to the bay, and they all stopped suddenly, none of them hesitated in raising their weapons. Braddock, being behind them, had to crane his neck a little to see why they had all stopped, and he saw the bald, goggled man with a raised gun as well and the much shorter young woman he had with him. Braddock pushed his way to the front, staring in awe. The woman was startling enough, but...

That couldn't really be Richard B. Riddick... could it?

He opened his mouth to voice both his shock and orders to his men, but the woman, attractive, dark-haired and looking exhausted, got there first. She looked at Riddick, crossing her arms over her chest and giving him a look that could kill.

"I blame you." she muttered, using a tone in her voice that Braddock knew meant she must be on close terms with Riddick. After all, the last time Braddock had crossed Riddick's bad side, he'd given him a scar that was constantly hidden under his shirt. That damn abdominal aorta. Braddock had just barely survived. But then, Riddick had been young when he'd attacked him, it was only expected that he wouldn't be able to kill _every_ merc he had that vendetta against.

_Once again, not meaning to be rude, but please take 5 seconds to leave even a one-word review. As always, thanks very much to Starnyx and reagan isabelle williams for always commenting!_


	13. Chapter 12

_This chapter is insanely long and really dumb. Sorry, but I've been forced to scrap my original idea (again!) and think up another one. So, this chapter is mainly to buy me time. I'm so sorry, and right now it's looking like this might be split into two stories... But, dear God, I hope not._

When the murky, heavy blackness wrapped around him finally began to lift, Riddick forced his way through it immediately and his silver eyes snapped right open. He took in his surroundings with one sweep of his eye-shine, making out the door on the opposite wall, the pitcher for water, and the cot placed in a corner of the room. There was a camera focused on him, watching his every move, and the fact that he was shackled to the wall with his arms above his head didn't lighten his mood in the slightest.

Gritting his teeth, Riddick used his exceptional upper body strength to lift himself off the ground by pulling on the chains. When his feet were suspended above the floor, he quickly retreated into the subconscious part of his mind so he could dislocate his shoulders, flip himself around, break the chains off the wall, fall back to the ground and pop his shoulder blades back into place without feeling much of the pain. The place he folded himself into while it happened was in a field, lying on his back and staring at the stars. His eyes were blue again, as they had been when he was a kid, and lying next to him was Ky-

"Bravo, bravo!" the male voice and the mocking applause brought him shooting back to reality, his body instinctively acting in defense mode. Riddick took the broken ends of the chains in his hands and flexed the two lengths in front of him, fully prepared to wrap them around someone's neck, but the sight of a gun pointing right between his eyes stopped him. It was that man, Neil or whatever his name was, holding the gun with a smug, sadistic look on his face and two more cautious-looking men standing behind him in the now open doorway.

"Put the chains down," Neil commanded slowly. Riddick didn't move a muscle.

"Put the chains down, Riddick, or we won't give you your present." Neil repeated, only this time with a more... anticipating look in his eyes. Riddick didn't have to think it through to get what Neil meant. He either had to put down the only weapons he still had on him, or he had to forfeit his right to see Raven. The last thing he remembered before the tranquilizer was shoved into the back of his neck was Raven being dragged backwards down a hallway, her mouth forming the sounds of his name.

Slowly, never taking his goggled eyes from Neil, Riddick set the heavy metal chains on the floor.

"Good boy. We want you in the cockpit." Neil put down the gun, jerking his head over his shoulder and turning to lead. Riddick, the aching beginning to take hold in his shoulders and arms, glanced suspiciously at him before following. The three men led him out of the cell, up a series of metal stairs, down a long hallway and finally into an area that resembled the Necropolis in size and decoration.

The differences were that instead of a throne there was a panel of controls, and instead of Necromongers there were the men of the crew working at their stations or examining data of some sort. A chair at the control panel swiveled around and there appeared Braddock, smiling and looking very happy.

Riddick sneered and growled as the man stood and approached him. Braddock chuckled a little.

"Woah, woah, calm down, Riddick! I'm not a merc anymore, can't you tell?" Braddock said, holding out his hands as if to profess his innocence. Riddick's sneer deepened.

"No, actually, I can't. You still smell like blood, you see." he responded under his breath, loud enough for only Braddock to hear. The older man's smile dropped and his eyes hardened. He turned on his heel back to the control panel, typing in some words and facing Riddick again after an apparently good beep sounded.

"Water under the bridge, Riddick. What I want to discuss with you is something of a more... economical nature. You see, I may not be a merc anymore, but I still need to make a living. Gotta put food in my kids' mouths. Yeah, I got kids. Three of them. Anyway, I have a favor to ask of you, Riddick, one that will be quite beneficial to both of us."

"Sorry, Braddock, but the only favors I do for people involve somebody getting killed." Riddick's reply was a straight up no, and Braddock had opened his mouth in growing agitation when suddenly the doors opened again, and in came two more men with a struggling figure between them.

"Captain," one of the men hollered, a little breathless, "You asked that the girl be brought to the cockpit." Riddick snapped around to find Raven, dirty and near hysteria, being clutched by her arms by the two men. She was between them, her hair knotted and tears streaming little rivers through the dirt on her face. She saw him and a bright look of hope passed over her features.

"Riddick!" she gasped in relief, smiling at the sight of him before Braddock gave a signal and the men threw her roughly to the ground. Raven landed hard, her hands breaking her fall. Tears fell even faster than before as she heard the men above her begin laughing at her embarrassment. Above her, Riddick fought against a grimace. He'd endured his fair share of jeers, heckles and humiliation at the hands of other people. Seeing Raven go through it for such a small thing as being pushed to the ground made him remember the feeling, and he wished he could divert the attention from her.

Braddock waved the men away and stepped forward, kneeling down in front of Raven. He took her chin in his hand and gently lifted her face to look him in the eye. Riddick's fists clenched.

"You're tired of running, aren't you?" he said softly. Raven nodded and Riddick instantly knew what Braddock was trying to do: sweet talk her into giving up information about where Riddick had been these last several months.

Once a goddamn merc, always a goddamn merc!

"You miss your home, and your family, don't you?" Raven nodded again, folding her body into a little ball with her arms cradled against her chest. Braddock stroked her hair lovingly before rising back to his feet.

"If you can tell me something that's very important to me, honey, I can get you home before next Scorpion Sunrise." Braddock's words remained kind and fatherly as Raven looked upwards at him. Riddick understood how she must be seeing the man: protective trustworthy, generous, everything Riddick knew him not to be.

She surprised them both, however, when despite Braddock's offer she still said nothing. Raven looked from Riddick to him, a look of shock mixed with loyalty and temptation shining in her eyes. Riddick felt a smile pull at his lips. This was perhaps her last shot at getting home alive, and she wasn't taking it.

All out of loyalty to him. Riddick submitted to the smile.

Upon realizing she was never going to tell, though, Braddock sneered at her. He suddenly grabbed her leg and tucked the limb under his arm in a way that she wouldn't be able to pry free from. That didn't stop her from fighting, and even Riddick was confused at first to what he was planning to do. Braddock eyed him as he took a lighter out from his pocket and gripped her kicking leg firmly. He flicked the lighter open and set it against the metal ring he wore on his right hand.

Raven realized it first. Her eyes widened in terror as the flame made the metal ring begin to heat up.

"No! Please, don't hurt me! Don't, please!" she whined. It dawned on Riddick, too, just as Braddock finished heating up his ring.

He was going to brand her leg, mark her as his property unless someone coughed up information. That was humiliation beyond anything Riddick had ever experienced.

Braddock aimed his substitute branding tool right above the sensitive flesh of her leg, giving Riddick a hard look. Meanwhile, Raven had begun pushing on his shoulder and scratching at his back, tears falling anew from her eyes.

"Please, I'm begging you, don't do it! Please!" She was screaming now, trying desperately to get away but his grip held firm. Riddick and him made eye contact, and the message was clear: either you tell me what I want to know, or I mutilate her for the rest of her life. His choice, the decision resting in his hands, yet Riddick said nothing and after a couple minutes Braddock shrugged.

Raven's green eyes widened even more as his hand drifted closer to her leg, the metal ring steaming. Riddick had to save her... he just had to. The cold bastard couldn't be that heartless, to let her be branded like cattle. Not even Riddick could watch that!

"Braddock!" Riddick suddenly barked. The man stopped, his ring literally centimeters from Raven's flesh, and looked up. Riddick had taken a couple steps forward, his fists still clenched and his jaw set in both rage and embarrassment. Raven looked incredulously at him over Braddock's shoulder. She had expected Riddick to save her, but she had thought he'd do it with some fancy moves, spilling blood and quick take over of the ship. She had never thought he'd give up the information Braddock was asking for, and she had to admit knowing he'd done it at all made her feel special, protected, and even powerful.

After all, forfeiting was not something Riddick did for just anyone. Braddock smiled, released her and stood.

"Good man. Let's retire to my cabin, shall we? I'll have some beer brought while we talk things over." He made a move to put a friendly arm around Riddick's shoulders, but the ex-convict growled low in his throat and Braddock quickly made it into a motion of scratching the back of his neck. Raven was ordered to be put in a room all to herself, with no interference from any crew members and anything she asked for given. Before Riddick could look to be sure of it, though, Braddock had led him out of the cockpit and into an adjacent room.

It was obviously his office, judging by the fancy desk in the center and the large window behind his seat. Braddock gestured for him to take a seat and Riddick did so, propping his feet up on the man's desk in an act of rebellion. Braddock gritted his teeth and ignored it as he sat down, taking a picture frame and turning it so Riddick could see the smiling faces of a woman and three little boys.

"My family. Told you I had one." he announced proudly. Riddick said nothing, only stared at him.

"Anyway, Riddick. I won't beat around the bush, go through any of that sugar-coating shit. I'm just gonna tell you outright: I know you're the Necromonger king by blood-right, and I want you to use your influence in my advantage." he said, leaning towards him a little over the desk. He had a confident look on his face, but Riddick merely leaned over in an imitation of him.

"No." he responded. Braddock's smile stiffened, and after a couple seconds of a stare-down he stood and walked a couple steps around towards him.

"What's her name? The girl's?" he asked. Without wasting a second, Riddick answered.

"What's it matter?"

"Just tell me her name, Riddick. I promise, I won't use it for anything." There were several moments of silence before Riddick leaned back in the chair, looking very relaxed.

"Raven." he replied. Braddock smiled.

"Raven, huh? Good, strong name for a girl. Implies mystery and swiftness, yet a certain... sensual appeal." Braddock leaned against the desk, folding his arms over his chest as he spoke. Riddick felt a pressure in his chest upon hearing the words 'sensual appeal', but he did nothing to show it.

"Did you fuck her?" The question came completely out of no where, and it took Riddick a couple seconds to actually hear and comprehend it. He blinked.

"Excuse me?" was all he could say. Braddock grinned lustfully, leaning down towards him.

"Did you fuck her? You know, horizontal tango?" Riddick's mouth opened, and for the very first time in his life, he couldn't say anything. He was afraid that if he did try to speak, he'd cuss the older man into the next millennium.

"C'mon, Riddick, you can tell me. I mean, it would be hard to resist a little slice like her. All action, no talking? It's like a carnal free-for-all!" Riddick clenched his fists again, closing them around shivs that he now remembered had been taken from him. Braddock, however, kept going.

"What was she like? Did she put up any kind of fight? 'Cause you know, my men ain't seen women in quite a while. We could let them on her for a couple nights, teach her a lesson about respecting men. Girl does have a bit of a mouth on her." Braddock's smile widened and his eyebrows wagged up and down as he sat back down in his seat. Riddick found his voice.

"Braddock, you-" But he was cut off.

"How many times? Was it a get in, get off, get out kinda deal, or did she beg you to go on longer?"

"You better shut your fucking mouth-"

"Or did she start it? Little spit-fire like her, I wouldn't put it past her."

"I'm going to strangle you with my bare hands if you don't shut the hell up-"

"Or did you force her into it? It musta been tempting, a big guy like you and a little girl like her. It would've been no problem at all to just grab her and throw her on-" Riddick lost it. Before Braddock could finish his sentence, Riddick had jumped up from his seat, grabbed onto the lapel of Braddock's uniform, and pulled the older man into a threateningly close stance.

"I said you shut your fucking mouth, Braddock!"

There was silence in the room, Riddick's shout echoing a little and the blood pounding in his ears from the intensity of his anger. Braddock only stared at him curiously, and then he smiled.

"So, it's true," he muttered quietly, "What I suspected was true. Richard B. Riddick, convicted mass murderer, has a weakness. And of all things, it's a woman!" The older man chuckled a little, gripping Riddick's large hand in his and jerking it off of him. He straightened his uniform and the two men stared at each other, trying to figure each other out, before Braddock sighed.

"You can relax, Riddick. I have a wife waiting for me back home, why would I want a little girl like her? Sit down, please." Braddock sat down, and after a few seconds so did Riddick, though the later never took his goggled eyes off his opponent.

"Back to what I was saying. I know you're the Necromonger King, and I know how you got the crown. Even if you've refused it, if you were to suddenly reclaim it they would have no choice but to give it to you. It is their law.

"Do you even realize what you could do if you kept the crown? You could command armies, possess more power than has ever been seen in this universe, 'move mountains' is how I believe that saying goes. And, you could experience unlimited and unconditional freedom and protection. Becoming a king, Riddick, would exonerate you of all your crimes. You could live as a free man!" Braddock spread his arms wide to emphasize and gave a look as if he couldn't believe Riddick had ever forfeited the crown in the first place. Riddick, however, only smiled.

"I hardly think of being caged by royal responsibilities 'free', Braddock." he replied.

"Call it whatever you want, but you can't deny that it would give you- and anyone you chose to associate with- unlimited economic possibilities." There was a pause as Riddick worked our Braddock's meaning, and when it dawned on him he couldn't help but laugh. Braddock blinked.

"Why- Why are you laughing?" he asked. Riddick looked back at him with an amused smile.

"I'm laughing at the fact that you think I'll give up my freedom so that you can have trading rights under Necromonger protection. You should've learned, Braddock, that if there's one thing I won't tolerate from another man, it's the trafficking of little kids."

"Yeah, that's right, I know what you wanted to trade. There is lots of money to be made in selling little girls into prostitution." Riddick's smile faded and his voice drifted off as the memory of a shouting match in a Crematoria prison returned, giving Braddock a chance to get pissed and then try to make a break for it.

The kill was quick. Riddick only intercepted him and then swiftly pushed him backwards so that he tripped over the desk legs and fell backwards, cracking his head on the floor. Blood started to trickle out from the back of his head, and Riddick raided his pockets and only glanced fleetingly at the picture of his family.

If Braddock had been like this, manipulative and scheming, at home, Riddick doubted his wife and sons would miss him. If anything, they should rejoice in his death.

Now came the hard part: convincing the rest of the crew to submit to his control, at least until he could get where he wanted to go. Leaving the room, Riddick paused and looked at the gun and shiv he'd taken off of Braddock. He was one man going against twenty or so, armed with only two weapons and with another person to make sure stayed safe.

Riddick gripped both weapons firmly in hand and sprinted off towards the cockpit. This wouldn't be easy, but he could do it. It would be messy, but that wouldn't stop him. Difficulty and gore had never deterred him before.

Besides, he wouldn't be able to take the embarrassment of facing Raven if he failed.

_Once again, SO sorry for length and the slow pace this story is moving. It'll pick up, though, I promise. But yeah, two separate stories is looking to be a definite possibility... or should I say probability... Either way, leave a comment, please. Really helps my feelings about this fic and I've noticed it tends to boost my inspiration. Take the time, please, to review._


	14. Chapter 13

_The first part of that 'big something' I'm leading up to is in this chapter. The next part will be revealed in the next chapter (duh), which will probably be my longest chapter by far. So, anyone who has short antention span better duct tape yourself to their computer so you can read the thing in full._

Riddick leaned back in the chair, covering his eyes with his hand in a tired manner. That fight had really worn him out. Twenty specially trained policemen all coming at him at once had been tough and confusing, and more than once he had only survived on sheer dumb luck. The remaining three had finally surrendered and where currently cleaning up the bodies of their late comrades, all shooting angry glares at Riddick from behind but the knowledge of his exceptional fighting skill keeping them all at bay.

After a couple minutes, Riddick turned to them. He swiveled around in the chair and gained their immediate attention.

"You're done for today. Eat something, get some sleep." He was quickly obeyed, the men stalking off through the doors with looks of defeat mixed with resentment in their eyes. A shadow moving in a corner hurried forward, and once she stepped into light he could see the frightened, wary stance Raven was in and the wide-eyed caution all over her face. The men passed her by without a second glance but that didn't stop her from taking two wild steps backwards.

Riddick watched her with an analytical eye. What had those assholes done to her when he was locked up? She no longer seemed like the strong, tough woman he'd watched grow these past months, but instead like the scared, uncertain girl she'd been before. She turned to face him when the doors slid closed on them, and he could tell that she was going to cry.

He was ready. Riddick saw the first tightening of her throat, and he stood up and walked quickly over to her. She met him halfway, flying to him and burying her face in his chest. Riddick wrapped her in his arms protectively as she released the first of what would surely be many sobs.

"I've never been so humiliated!" she wailed into his chest. Riddick tightened his grip on her, resting his chin on the top of her curly black hair.

"First they lock me up like I'm cattle, and then those men, they... they harass me when I have no way to defend myself, and then that man almost branded me. _Branded_ me! How could this happen, Riddick? How could they have done those things to me, to us?" Riddick felt an uncomfortable shiver shake through his spine.

He had always known Raven never knew what happened to her sister before Crematoria. He wondered if perhaps now was the time to tell her...

"Rae," he suddenly muttered, pulling back from her so they could make eye contact. Tears were still streaming from her green eyes, her cheeks raw and red. Riddick's resolve hardened. He led her over to two chairs and had her sit down so that they were facing each other.

"Do you know why Kyra was sent to Crematoria?" he asked gently. Raven noted the softness and hesitance, and after giving him a weird look she shook her head.

"After she left New Mecca to look for you, we heard nothing from her until she was entered in the Crematoria logbook. I assumed she'd been picked up for petty stealing or something." she replied while wiping the last remnants of tears from her eyes. Riddick waited a moment, thinking about what he had to do and if she could take this, and then he decided that if he didn't tell her now he never would.

"She hooked up with a merc crew a little after leaving. They told her they would teach her to fight and to track people down, but instead they... They sold her out to people. For them to use. After a while, she realized she either had to escape or die like that, so she killed them all to get away. That sweet spot technique you've wanted me to show you? She used that to kill them. That's why I haven't been showing you, Rae, because I don't want you to know it and use it on another person the same way Kyra had to." His last sentence came out in a rush and a slightly more raised voice, as Raven had suddenly jumped up and walked away few steps. She had her arms crossed under her breast, one hand pressed over her mouth as her green eyes went wide in shock.

"You've known this... all this time?" she whispered to him. Riddick rose to his feet as well.

"I didn't want to tell you when we first met. We didn't trust each other; you wouldn't have believed me anyway. I figured you were better off not knowing, so I didn't say anything. But when Braddock tried to mutilate you like that, and I saw the crew members laughing at you, I-" He never finished his sentence. Before he could, Raven suddenly turned and flew at him, releasing a shriek of pain and hatred.

"It was _you_!" she screeched, her voice strident as tears fell anew from her already raw eyes. Her hands reached out in claws for him, and Riddick only barely managed to catch her and hold her at arms length. That didn't stop her from screaming, "_You_! _You_ abandoned her! _You_ made her leave me, and _you_ filled her head with all that fucking talk of a life of adventure!_ You _left her, _you_ set her up to be raped... _YOU KILLED HER!_" Riddick was barely able to hold her back. She was kicking out at him at the same time as flexing her taloned fingers towards him, her eyes insane and her lips curled in a loathing sneer. There was that look of pure rage again. Not even Kyra had ever worn that face, so to see her twin giving it to him for the second time... Riddick felt a shiver run up his spine.

He knew, though, that there was no trying to calm Raven or trying to talk sense into her. He had to wait it out, let her wear herself down before he could say anything more. He did just that; he held her at arms length and endured her animalistic screams and scratching nails, stumbling backwards several times as she pushed harder and harder against him.

Eventually, as she had the first time she'd flown into a rage at him, Raven stopped moving. She dropped to her knees in front of him, her wrists still clenched in his large hands and her black hair falling over her face. She was heaving dry sobs, her tears spent up, and Riddick stood for a minute before he lowered to his knees as well. Raven looked up at him, curling strands of inky black hair hanging in her face, and then she slowly scooted herself forward and collapsed against him.

"I'm sorry," he said as she snaked her arms around his chest and leaned into him. She raised her head a little and pressed a small kiss to his lips, which he did not respond to until she pulled away. He put his hand against the back of her head and pulled her back in.

A couple hours later, in the private room Raven had been given by Braddock, Riddick was sitting up on the side of the bed. Raven was sleeping beside him, her bare back constantly teasing him to wake her up so they could enjoy each other again. Instead, Riddick stood and pulled on his clothes, leaving the room and making his way to the cockpit.

He collided with someone on his way, though. Three someone's, to be exact. A young man with red-brown hair and a muscular build, a slightly older man with shoulder-length brown hair and a blue tunic, and a dark-skinned woman whose orange hair was tied back away from her face and clothing to show off as much of her body as possible. They each took a few steps backwards in surprise, but when Riddick made eye contact with the young man, he was surprised to see him smile. Happiness was not usually the reaction he got from people.

"Are you the man that killed Braddock and the crew?" he asked. His voice was deep yet light, the kind of tone that came from people who were enjoying freedom in it. Riddick waited a bit, and then nodded. The young man punched the air and whooped once in triumph, while the two people he recognized as Elementals hugged each other.

"Hey, hey!" he shouted suddenly, drawing their rejoicings to a halt, "What do you care if I've taken over the ship? Who are you, anyway?" The Water Elemental stepped forward.

"I am Neriss. I am a Water Elemental, and this is my comrade, Saeko, a Fire Elemental." he introduced himself and the young woman next to him. He had a very calm expression on his face, a relaxed sort of joy. The woman, however, tossed her hair angrily and put her hands on her hips.

"You know, I can introduce myself, Neriss!" she hissed, the air around her beginning to waver as her body heat jumped by hundreds of degrees. The man turned his head and gave her a sharp look.

"It's called courtesy, Saeko. He asked me who we were, so I answered for the both of us." The two continued bickering and Riddick lifted an eyebrow at them.

"Okay," he muttered, turning back to the young man, "And who are you?"

"I'm Len. Braddock picked all three of us up on Scorpio 5. I don't know what he wanted with us, because as far as I know none of us did anything. I'm a wanderer, so I was just passing through the Scorpio system when suddenly I'm being arrested for God knows what. A few hours after they stuck a bit in my mouth and chained me to a wall, they brought in those two. Braddock's had us jailed for months, now. He never told us what we were picked up for or where we were going." he answered, running his fingers through his hair. Riddick crossed his arms and nodded.

The two Elementals were probably trustworthy, and Len probably wouldn't risk getting thrown in a cell again, but... Riddick couldn't trust them. He already had the three surviving crew members to keep watch on, and Raven to think about. He couldn't afford to have these extra three taking up his time and energy. Although, they probably were more trustworthy than the crew members. Those men were trained to never back down, and Riddick knew that as long as they were alive he and Raven were in constant danger, but he couldn't kill them because this ship was too big for just two people to run. He could always put them in the cells, and have the other three help...

"Here's the deal," Riddick suddenly said, drawing their complete attention, "I'll let you come with us freely, and I'll throw those other crew members in the cells in your place. But if you do anything to hurt me, or anyone else you may come across, you better learn how to breathe without oxygen because I will throw you out of this ship without thinking twice." He held out his large hand to Len, ignoring the looks of caution the three people shot at him. There was a second's pause, and then Len gingerly took his hand and they shook on it.

"You can sleep in some of the private rooms tonight. Tomorrow we'll throw those men into your cells, and we can head out." he said, moving past them and continuing towards the cockpit.

"But where are we going to?" Neriss suddenly asked after him. Riddick stopped. He knew where they had to go, what he had to do... It would be for her own good...

"Don't know yet. I will by tomorrow, though, so don't lose any sleep over it." he answered, taking off again.

By the time he reached the cockpit, he was ready to punch his fist through a wall. He didn't want to abandon her there like he had done with Kyra. He was terrified she would pull the same stupid stunt and history would repeat itself, but he knew that Raven was smarter than that. She would know better than to hook up with mercs. If they were lucky, she may even have the sense to just keep her ass put.

Taking a deep breath, Riddick logged into the destination page. He typed in the words and then hit 'enter'. There were a couple seconds of waiting, and then _Helion Prime_ began to blink in bright green letters, letting him know the computer had accepted the destination and was charting it's course now.

She would hate him for it. She would scream and cry and fight him for her right to stay with him, but he couldn't let her. Just like with her sister, he was a danger to her, and she was a danger to him. They'd almost died only hours ago, because of their relationship. He couldn't risk it. History may repeat itself, but he trusted Raven's judgment to not let that happen. He would have to dump the Elementals and Len along with her, too. Besides, he had trained her hard and well. She knew how to fight, now, just as Kyra had wanted for her. He slouched in the chair and covered his face with his hand again.

He only hoped Lajjun and Ziza didn't mind impromptu house guests.

_Yep, Riddick's going back to Helion Prime. Stupid, git, you'd think after Kyra he'd have learned not to abandon the women in his life. Ah well, you all will just have to wait to see what goes down in the next chapter. Read and review please._


	15. Chapter 14

_Okay, I was wrong. I couldn't fit the entirety of that 'big something' into two chapters. It most definitely, however, will be in the next one. This I swear unto The Lord and Lady above us. _

Raven made sure to wash her hair and clothes specifically for that day. She took a two-hour shower, using up all the hot water and earning a yelling match with Riddick, but she didn't care. She screamed half-heartedly at him and then walked off into her room, where she straightened and brushed her hair until it shone and then carefully arranged it into a ponytail with a pink rubber band. She took some broken wires and tied them into earrings and a bracelet. She looked herself up and down in her mirror, smiling self-consciously at her reflection before leaving her room.

She had wanted to appear before Riddick first, to let him be the first person to see her actually looking nice for the first time in years. Her tan capris and red tank-top, the same things she'd worn on their first meeting, would have to make him smile. She loved it when he did that.

However, as she was turning the corner to his room, she collided with another person. They had both been moving a little fast, so Raven, being smaller, rebounded off of him and onto the floor.

She breathed out harshly, pressing a hand to her throbbing chest where they had collided the hardest. She looked upwards at the man, ready to cuss him out like she had seen Riddick do, but she was surprised to find herself looking at a hand that was reaching down to help her up.

"I'm sorry. Are you okay?" he said. She glanced around the hand in her face to him, noticing the red-brown of his hair and his stormy-gray eyes. Was he one of the crew members that Riddick had let live? She knew there were three of them, but since she hadn't been able to bring herself to look at them the one time they'd passed her by she didn't know what they looked like. Tentatively, Raven placed her hand in his and let him haul her back to her feet.

He was nearly two heads taller than her, standing about as high as Riddick. He was a slender sort of muscular, his red-brown hair falling in his concerned eyes in a flattering way. They looked each other up and down, each with their own cautions and prejudices, but despite that they had no trouble making eye contact.

"I'm Len. I was a prisoner of Braddock's, but once Riddick killed him we were free. The guy's a little frigid, but he seems to be decent. Who are you?" he introduced himself with a charming ease that Raven found lightened the mood considerably. She offered him a smile after a few seconds.

"Raven Kale. I've been Riddick's companion for the past few months. I didn't know that bastard had prisoners, and what do you mean 'we'? Are there more of you?" she replied. Len shrugged.

"Only two, Elementals. They-"

"You've actually seen Elementals? Like, seen them with your _own two eyes_?" Raven suddenly interjected in surprise. Len stopped, blinked, and nodded. Raven let her green eyes go wide in fascination.

"No frickin' way! Do you even know how rare that is, how lucky you are to have seen them? Are they here? Right now, are they still here right now? Can you take me to them? I'd love to meet them! Could you, please?" Her enthusiasm surprised Len, making him lean away from her on instinct as she was advancing on him as she spoke.

He actually found himself drawn into her eyes the most. He'd never seen eyes that vibrant green before. They were wide and bright as she asked question after question without giving him time to answer, giving her an innocently intellectual look. Len couldn't help but wonder... What was a girl like this doing with a man like him? She looked like she belonged in a university or temple of study somewhere, not cavorting around the universe. That got him thinking: what exactly had she meant when she called herself Riddick's _companion_?

"Uh, I think they're both still sleeping. You know how cryosleep affects people differently, especially after three months of it. Where are you going, looking so nice?" he quickly changed the subject on her, making Raven look down at herself self-consciously.

"I- I was going to, um... his room." she mumbled, knowing how it sounded and blushing furiously when she saw Len give her a weird look. Honestly, she had never thought about that while getting ready, but now that she was looking back on her actions, it did look a little suspicious, didn't it? Her getting all dressed up and heading straight for Riddick's private room.

"Uh-huh," Len muttered. Raven looked up, her cheeks still bright red, but she said nothing to set his conclusions straight. After all, though the thought may not have immediately crossed her mind, she couldn't deny that it probably wouldn't happen.

"Well, he's not in there right now. He's in the cockpit. First thing he did after waking up from cryosleep. I'm sure you can find your way." he said while moving aside for her. Raven noted a chillier tone in his voice but decided to ignore it, setting her shoulders firmly and lifting her head a little as she walked past him.

When she did reach the cockpit and stepped through the door, and she saw Riddick hunched over the controls panel in his seat, she remembered what Len had said and the way he had looked at her. She wondered: had he thought her no more than a slut after hearing what she had to say? The thought angered her, embarrassed her, and it also cut her pretty deep. True, she and Riddick didn't love each other, but-

'Oh, God,' Raven thought suddenly to herself as the realization dawned on her. She pressed a hand to her abdomen as her stomach clenched and another over her mouth in shock, 'I do love him. I do! Oh, shit, this couldn't get any worse, could it?!'

"Having fun spying on me?" Riddick suddenly said without turning around. Raven looked up and quickly lowered her hands, stepping forward a little despite her churning insides and the coldness that gripped her everywhere.

"No, no. I just wanted to show you something." she mumbled in response. Riddick held up a hand over his shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, just a sec, Rae." he muttered. Raven blinked and crossed her arms, scratching behind her ear a little as she grew more and more nervous. What if he didn't like her looking like this? Would he recognize her? Would he think she was weak now, because she had given into little luxuries? Now she thought using those wires as jewelry was the stupidest idea ever. They didn't hang properly on her wrist and the one on her left ear was sticking out at a weird angle. She was just reaching up to quickly take them off when Riddick swiveled around in his chair.

Raven froze with her hand half lifted towards her ear, watching him watch her. He stared at her for a bit, his eyes once again hidden behind his goggles so she couldn't tell if there was any emotion shining in them. They were both silent as he observed her new appearance, and eventually Raven found herself so embarrassed that she turned on her heel and bolted from the room.

"Hold it!" Riddick's powerful voice brought her slamming to a halt, putting a grimace on her face as he told her to turn around so he could see her again. Raven did so slowly, closing her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the look on his face.

"Why so much effort today?" he asked. Raven opened her eyes and looked up at him. It had no rude undertones. It was an honest question. Raven felt a blush rise up in her neck and face again.

"Well... Today is... my birthday. It's the 7th of January, I'm twenty today." At first Riddick didn't reply. He stared at her, but it took a couple seconds for him to say anything.

"Happy Birthday. You look nice. But is your birthday the only reason you got so fancy?" he asked questioningly. Raven blinked and tilted her head a little in confusion. Was there some other reason she didn't know about that he thought she might?

"I don't-" She began to ask for more specifics, but just then the computer beeped loudly in a warning sort of way. Riddick dashed back to the control panel.

"What's happening?" Raven asked instead as Len and two very tired looking people came stumbling in behind her.

"Nothing, we've just entered the atmosphere wrong." Riddick replied. Raven blinked again, and then suspicion rose up inside her. Atmosphere equaled planet, and she wanted to know which planet that was exactly.

"Riddick," she growled as she quickly approached him, "Which planet are we talking about?" Her voice and eyes were hard, determined to have the truth from him.

"Which planet do you think, Rae?" he growled back. Raven's jaw dropped and the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck rose up. They couldn't go to Helion Prime! They just couldn't!

"We can't, Riddick! They think I'm dead there, I faked my own death!"

"Maybe that's why mercs are after you."

"That's not a crime! Now, just turn around, please!" she began to beg, pulling on his black shirt. Riddick brushed her off and continued messing with the buttons and switches on the control panel.

"Everybody find a seat and buckle up. This ain't gonna be an easy landing." Riddick shouted at them after a few minutes. Len and the two people rushed into some chairs and strapped themselves in, and after a couple seconds Raven followed suit. She found a seat next to Len and a woman with dark skin and orange hair, but she was too angry and afraid to even recognize her as one of the Elementals she had been so excited to meet. Riddick claimed the seat opposite her, and for the entire descent she never took her glaring eyes off of him. He showed how much he cared that she was pissed by ignoring her and watching the front window, observing as the orange-yellow atmospheric gasses burned against the ship and the surface of Helion Prime slowly came into view.

Eventually, Raven's attention was drawn away, too. She stared out at the approaching city, her lips parted a little bit as a rush of déjà vu filled her. The last time she had seen that city, she was seventeen and setting out on a mission to find the man her sister had begged her to track down. Now, returning to it, she was twenty, and that man her sister had wanted her to find?

She was in love with him herself. Oh, the irony.

The landing was, as Riddick had predicted, rough. They had been forced to set their coordinates to an open field on the outskirts of the abandoned industrial zone of the city, a place so polluted they needn't worry about being spotted. When the ship banged to the ground and everyone was nearly thrown from their seats, Riddick barked at them all to suck it up and move it out. He was the first one outside, grabbing hold of Raven's arm as she exited and dragging her along behind him as he led them through the field and into the city.

"Let me go!" Raven grunted, jerking free from his hold and brushing some stray strands of black hair from her eyes.

"The three of you stay close to me, and at least try to stay out of my way." he ordered before taking off through the New Meccan Streets. Raven looked at the panting Len and Elementals, jerking her head back at Riddick's retreating form.

"He won't wait. Hurry it up!" she said, turning and racing after Riddick. The three people came as well, earning a welcoming smile from Raven but a frown from Riddick.

"Riddick, where are we going?" she asked after ten minutes of them twisting and turning through the crowded streets. The man didn't respond to her, merely turned onto a much less busy side street that struck a cord in Raven's memory. She paused for a minute, trying to place it, but Len and the Elementals weren't stopping and so she continued on with them. It was only when they rounded a corner that she turned on her heel and tried to run in the opposite direction, but Riddick hollered at her to stop. It prompted Len and the man with the blue tunic to grab onto her arms while the woman with orange hair stepped in front of her to block her path.

"No! Come on, Riddick, please, don't make me go in there! They've never even see me! Come on, Riddick, can't we just handle this ourselves? Do we really need to get them involved?" she grunted, pulling at her restrainers.

"Stop fighting, Rae. You're gonna lose." he said calmly, still watching the house they were approaching. As the woman kept fighting despite his words, he kept his eyes firmly locked on the dwelling.

It was broken and ghostly, seemingly like a shell so empty not even the echo of the sea could be heard in it, but at the same time one didn't get the feeling that it was forgotten. There was obviously someone still caring for it; the garden under the broken windows was neat and the flowers bright, tools were set out by the fence to mend it, and there was a child's toy lying on the front step. The toy in particular drew his focus. It made him wonder when she would appear...

"Ziza? Where are you?" The motherly voice made all four of them freeze. Len and Neriss let go of Raven, allowing her to race around to rejoin Riddick where he was waiting by the corner. She peered out from behind him, watching as the tall black-skinned woman leaned out of the window and turned her head up and down the street, looking for her child.

It didn't take too long for her to come trotting out from a corner on the opposite side of the street. She wore a dirty green sari, the veil covering her black hair falling off her head as the wind caught it. Ziza was clutching something in her small hand, holding it against her chest as if she was prepared to guard it with her life.

"Do you have it?" Lajjun asked, placing her hands on her daughter's shoulders as the girl reached her. Ziza held out her hand and revealed two wrinkled pieces of paper money. Riddick and Raven both flinched; in New Mecca, two urahjs was barely the minimum wage for a child laborer. The relieved smile that crossed Lajjun's face only added to the sting they both felt. They watched as Lajjun ushered her daughter inside, looking cautiously over her shoulder before closing the door behind them.

"Oh, God," Raven mumbled, "If I had known they were doing so bad... I could have left them something before I went, but I never knew after Imam's death... Oh, I feel so bad." Riddick said nothing to her, knowing that she already knew he felt the same way.

"Are we going to rob them or something?" Saeko whispered to Neriss behind Raven. The black-haired woman turned suddenly and grabbed hold of the Elemental's hair, pulling hard enough to bring the woman to the ground. Raven towered above Saeko, her green eyes enflamed with anger.

"We're doing no such thing! Anyone who even tried to hurt those two has to go through me!" she growled. Saeko glared in return, fire beginning to light under her palms.

"Cool it down, Rae," Riddick muttered without taking his eyes off the house. Neriss helped a fuming Saeko to her feet, whispering something that quickly reined in the Fire Elemental's anger. Len crossed his arms and stared suspiciously at Raven.

"Two minutes ago you were ready to bolt in the other direction away from them, and now you're defending them with a passion. Make up your mind, why don't you?" he commented, earning a sneer from Raven before she turned back to face the house.

"That was before I knew they were in so much need of protecting." she responded over her shoulder. Riddick laughed a little through his nose, making the other three look at him in surprise.

"Oh, trust me, Rae; Lajjun can protect herself fully well. And that Ziza is as much of a fighter as her father was a believer. They won't need anything from you or anyone else." he commented, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully. The three people gave him inquisitive looks, but when Neriss opened his mouth to ask Raven held up a hand to him. She knew better than to ask about the workings of Riddick's mind.

"So," she asked instead, "What _are_ we going to do?" Riddick was silent for a minute before answering.

"We hope they're feeling in a welcoming mood." he responded as he rose to his full height and walked confidently up to the house. Even Raven was surprised by his boldness; usually Riddick was a lot more inconspicuous that this.

"He must really like that woman." she muttered to herself before sprinting to catch up with him, Len, Neriss, and Saeko following after her. Riddick led them up the steps to the door, waiting a second before pounding his muscular fist against it. There was no response, nor any sound of movement from the other side. Riddick knocked again, and when there was still no reply he looked over his shoulder at the other three with him.

"Your turn to come up with the plan." he said to Raven, stepping aside to let her have a try. The black-haired woman blinked at him before taking two cautious steps forward. At first she lifted a hand to simply repeat what Riddick had already tried, but she stopped herself. Doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results was the same as insanity, someone had told her once, and Raven was quite sure she was still in her own mind, so instead of knocking she merely put a hand on the door and gently pushed.

They were all surprised when it creaked open. Riddick pushed on her shoulder gently, giving her the OK to take a few tentative steps inside.

"They didn't even bother to lock it?" Neriss murmured from behind them, his staff making a muffled bang when he set it down on the dusty floor. Saeko shrugged and nodded her head of bright orange hair at Raven.

"Go look around the corner, see if something's happened to them." she prompted, encouraging the other woman to creep slowly around the wall and peer into the adjacent room.

She was about to say everything looked clear when a gunshot fired right at her. On reflex Raven fell backwards, her arms flying up to cover her face. She heard a little girl scream and Riddick's heavy combat boots race forward to stand protectively over her. When she lowered her hands, Raven's jaw dropped. There was Lajjun, holding a loaded gun and aiming it directly at Riddick's chest. Her dark face was hard and twisted in determination, and Raven could see Ziza crouched on her knees behind a chair with her hands clapped over her eyes. Len knelt by her side, putting an arm around her shoulders to help her to her feet as Riddick faced off with Lajjun.

"Get the fuck out of my house!" she hissed, her voice low and animalistic. Riddick held out his hands in a calming gesture.

"Now, just relax, Lajjun," he said. The woman wasn't listening.

"No! I'll not calm down! The last time you entered my home, the Necromongers destroyed our city and murdered my husband. You don't know the terror we went through, the terror we're _still_ going through. You don't know how many nights my baby girl has woken up shrieking from nightmares that the 'bad men' are after her next. You ruined everything for us, so just get out before you make it worse!" she shouted, jerking the gun towards the door. Riddick continued to stand his ground.

"You don't want me leaving, Lajjun." he said. She scoffed.

"And why wouldn't I?"

"Because I have something with me that your husband cared about very much. Or, at least I have half of it." Lajjun did, indeed, stop and eye him suspiciously, looking him over to see if he was holding it or if he had it tied on his belt. When she looked back into his eyes, he saw the smallest spark of curiosity.

"What is it?" she asked, lowering the gun a little. Riddick jerked his head at Raven.

"Kyra's twin sister." he announced. At that point, Ziza jumped up and rushed forward to get a good look, while her mother dropped the gun right then and there.

"Sweet Allah!" she exclaimed quietly, clapping her hands over her mouth.

"She's pretty." Ziza giggled, peeking out from behind her mother's skirt. Raven could only laugh nervously and give a terrified smile.

_Feel free to comment/ flame/ not comment as you wish... But I really would like it if you guys did comment. Pretty please with lots of sugar, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, nuts and M n'Ms on top._


	16. Chapter 15

_I tried my hardest to make this as short as possible... Yeah, didn't work too well. Sorry, but please read and comment. Minor changes have been made to this chapter, so I've re-uploaded it._

"That," Lajjun muttered when Riddick completed the thousandth retelling of Raven's story, "Is terrible. I can't imagine going through all of that, and then knowing my sister went through Hell on earth, and still being able to face the day." She reached across the table and took Raven's hand in hers. Raven looked up at her in surprise to find Lajjun wearing a sympathetic, understanding smile.

"You are a very strong woman. I only hope my Ziza can be like you when she is grown." Those words made both Raven and Riddick tense a little. Slowly, she shook her head and pulled her hand back.

"No disrespect, ma'am, but you don't want your daughter to be anything like me." Raven corrected, looking down. Lajjun's smile flickered away and she leaned back in her chair, an awkward silence taking the room again. The tension did eventually break, though, when a siren began to sound throughout the entire city.

"Oh, Jesus, what now?" Raven growled as Ziza came running back in with their three companions in tow. Lajjun picked her daughter up and set her on her hip, rushing to a door that opened to reveal a flight of stairs leading to a cellar.

"Drills," the woman said, holding the door open for them all to rush down.

"What do you mean drills?" Neriss asked when Lajjun closed and bolted the door, then flicked on a light. The woman first commanded them all to huddle down in a large group, staying as far from the walls as possible.

"Ever since the Necromonger invasion," she answered while squeezing in between Riddick and Saeko, "The city has had monthly drills that follow a new defense plan. All the women and children are supposed to hide in safe-rooms while all able-bodied men head out to the armory to gear up to fight." Raven struggled to point a finger at Riddick.

"Then shouldn't they be out there?" she asked. Lajjun managed to turn her head halfway around to look at her from a side view.

"You think I don't know that all five of you are fugitives? It's better if you all just stay here. Besides, the drill will be over soon anyway." she replied. Raven swallowed hard.

"But," she muttered again just before the lights failed. The suddenness made it obvious that someone had cut the wires, "Are you sure this is only a drill?" Her eyes had adjusted quickly, so when Lajjun turned to her again, Raven could easily see that her eyes were wide with fear. From beside her she could hear Riddick sigh.

"Nice going, Rae." he whispered to her as they heard the front door from above creak open. Raven rolled her eyes in his direction. She glared and was ready to reply with one of her snide remarks when the sound of a ball and chain dragging along the wooden floor above them drew their attention. All of the people looked upwards, Lajjun clapping a hand over Ziza's mouth when the girl whimpered.

"What is that?" Len asked. Neriss and Saeko exchanged a brief, hidden smile in the darkness, knowing full well what it was and knowing that their role in the journey had officially begun.

"You don't want to know." Riddick answered the younger man, his teeth gritted. Raven could feel his body tensing in agitation, and when the threatening sound from above stopped outside the door that led to the cellar, she reached up a hand and curled her fingers into the sweaty cloth of his shirt. He put his own large hand over hers, squeezing it in a shockingly comforting, gentle manner. Raven 

remembered again that she was in love with him just before the cellar door opened, and they all looked upwards and she and Riddick quickly released each other.

At first, it looked like smoke was standing in the doorway, and that it was swirling and fluttering in a way that just so happened to resemble the form of a woman. However, after a second, Aereon materialized, her white dress and cloak settling on her body and her old, weathered face breaking into a congenial smile.

They were all silent. The Air Elemental waited a few moments, as if considering her choice, before she began to slowly walk down the steps towards them, her ball and chain clanking angrily all the way.

Upon reaching the bottom, Saeko and Neriss both jumped to their feet. Neriss raised his staff out towards her in greeting as Saeko cupped her hands in front of her heart and spread them out in a welcoming gesture. Once her arms were spread wide, Aereon spread her own arms out and Saeko rushed into them, Neriss following at a slower pace.

"How are you, my children?" she muttered to them. Neriss smiled lightly.

"As good as can be expected, Mother." he replied. Raven could tell that even Riddick was taken aback.

"Mo- Mother?" she stuttered out. Saeko turned to her and nodded.

"Aereon. She's our mom. Don't bother asking how an Air Elemental produced an intellectual Water and a hot-headed Fire, she just did." Saeko added on, resting her head on Aereon's shoulder as Neriss placed his arm around both of them. Lajjun's mouth was hanging wide open while she fought to restrain a fidgeting Ziza, and Raven and Riddick could only look at each other.

"Interesting," Riddick mumbled more to himself than to anyone else before turning back to the family, "All familial reunions aside, what the hell are you doing here, and with the Necromonger dog tag still around your ankle?" He nodded to the ball and chain weighing her down. The elderly woman glanced down at it before disentangling herself from her children's hold and taking two brazen steps towards him.

"I need a word. Upstairs, without the woman and child." Was her answer, complete with a cautious nod at Lajjun and Ziza. Saeko and Neriss disappeared up the stairs, followed by their mother whose mere movement in that direction persuaded Raven to trot after her. A powerful hand on her shoulder stopped the dark-haired woman, however. Riddick pulled her back against him so he could lean down to whisper into her ear.

"Don't tell her anything about where who you are. When she asks, tell her you're a stray I picked up in the 5th Galadrias Sector." he commanded. Raven nodded before rushing after her, knowing that if Riddick didn't trust her then she was probably dangerous, yet she was unable to shake the feeling that this woman had something Raven wanted.

She collided with Len trying to make it to the steps. The two people rebounded off one another, grabbing onto each other to prevent them both falling. Raven looked up at him and he looked down at her, both of them blushing ever so slightly when they realized they had wound up locked in a rather romantic pose.

"Move it!" Riddick barked at them, seeming to aim his order at Len in particular. The tall man jumped and quickly obeyed, jerking away from Raven and hurrying up the steps. Raven flipped her black hair over her shoulder and glared at Riddick in agitation as he stepped in front of her.

"Move." he muttered to her in a far more gentle and patient tone than he had used with Len. He put his hand on the small of her back and gave her a small push towards the stairs, watching gravely as she listened and trotted up. His fist clenched in the desire to wring the life out of Len, but Riddick went with his better judgment and ignored it, stomping up to the ground floor and into the dining room where the others were.

Aereon was seated at the head of the table, her son and daughter sitting next to her like the bottom points of a triangle. Len and Raven were sitting with one seat in between them, something Riddick found pleased him very much. He grabbed the chair and turned it around so he had to straddle it to sit and face the group.

"Riddick," Raven whispered, drawing his attention, "Can't you, you know... Sit properly?" She was speaking out of the corner of her mouth as if afraid the others would hear her suggestion. Riddick only scoffed, turning back to stare Aereon right in the face.

"Well, in all honesty, I'm just glad to have received an invitation. Usually you hire a crew of those blood-thirsty, back-stabbing, cheating and conniving mercs to drag me to these meetings in chains. Well done, Aereon, you've moved up the bar to actually being humane!" he praised sarcastically, jumping to his feet and raising his weapon almost as fast as Neriss and Saeko. The man raised his staff high as if prepared to bludgeon him to death, and Saeko clapped her palms together and then drew them apart to reveal a fiery spider-web-looking thing that just emanated hostility. Riddick had both shivs raised towards them, his lips pulling back into a snarl. Aereon remained the only one seated as both Len and Raven stood, too, trying to push themselves between the feuding parties and calm them. A bout of yelling and swearing ensued, the noise growing so loud that they heard a panicked cry from Ziza who was still downstairs with her mother.

"That is enough!" Aereon finally stepped in, her anger being released in the form of a strong wind that blew through the whole house. Everyone slowly lowered themselves back into their seats, Saeko and Neriss bowing their heads in a little bit of shame and Riddick keeping his shivs gripped securely in his hands.

"I did not risk my life by coming here to hear childish squabbles over a comment that is right in every way. Riddick, I apologize for the crude means through which we met last, but I beg you to put it behind you. This time, I come to you for help in something far bigger than a bunch of religious fanatics destroying all who defy them."

"Lemme guess," Riddick interrupted, leaning forward into his seat with a relaxed air, "You want me to do all the dirty work for you to save the world, right? Fighting evil with another kind of evil? Well, too bad, bitch, you're gonna have to fight this one on your own." Aereon wasted no time in her rebuttal.

"That was for the good of mankind, Riddick, you know that!" she exclaimed seriously. Riddick's hands were clenching so tight his knuckles were whitening, and Raven shrunk down in her seat in preparation for the impending eruption.

"Then would you mind justifying what happened to those convicts who ran with me through the Crematorian desert? I led those people to their deaths, only to watch more people die because of me and what you had me do to stop those fucking Necros."

"Do not blame me for the consequences of your actions! It was your own choice to take those convicts with you; all I said was put down the Necromongers, I never told you how to do it! But above all, Riddick, do not- do _not_- try to blame her death on me. I didn't ask her to save you. In all truth I fully believed her to be converted, and-"

"Fuck you!" Riddick interrupted her again, jumping to his feet and charging towards the Elemental. Len lunged across the table to stop him, and Saeko and Neriss both threw themselves in front of their mother, but only Raven was able to make him halt.

"Riddick, don't!" she screamed, jumping in front of him and placing both of her hands against his chest. The man glared down at her only to find a look of cool, level-headedness gazing back at him. She had her palms pressed firmly against his chest, and though he was still pushing against her Raven wasn't letting him past.

"Stay out of this, Rae." he growled, grabbing her wrist in his hand and shoving her away. Raven released a strangled cry and clawed into his black shirt as she was flung off, the material straining and then ripping loudly. As the fabric gave, Raven fell hard to the floor, still clutching the cloth in her hands as Riddick took a threatening step towards Aereon. He stopped again because of Raven, but only because when she gasped it was not in pain but in something similar to horror.

"What is that?!" she hollered, pointing an accusing finger at the glowing blue-white hand print on his muscled chest. Riddick stopped and looked down at the Furyan mark placed on him by Sharrah nearly three years ago. The rest of the shirt had falling to the ground off of him, so Riddick was bared to the entire ogling group.

"That," Aereon responded calmly, rising to her feet and gliding tranquilly towards them, "Is the reason I am here in the first place. Your destiny is calling you, Riddick. Ignoring it the first time did nothing to deter it. It's quite an annoyance in that way- you can run from it all you like, but eventually it will find you, and once it does there's no running anymore."

"Your direct fight against the Necromongers is over. It ended when you killed the Lord Marshall in cold blood, the exact return payment for all the innocents he himself had killed. Now it is time to take up arms against them again, only this time I am not asking you to stand alone. This is something you cannot do without others, no matter how much your Furyan pride tells you that you can." Aereon paused in her speech and looked down at Raven. Her lips parted in the motion to speak, but Raven's memory of what Riddick had told her jumped into play.

"I'm Rena. I was a stowaway in his ship off of the 5th Galadrias Sector. I'm thoroughly confused, though, so if you all don't mind-"

"Oh, drop the act, Raven, I know who you are. And don't go thinking you have no meaning in this. You are a most integral part of it. Like a messenger, you could put it." the Elemental said with a knowing smile. The dark-haired woman scrambled to her feet and looked cautiously around from person to person.

"What do you mean?" she pressed, sitting back in her seat.

"I mean that, without you and those message-relaying techniques you've picked up, we would fail without question. With you, however, we've got quite a shot at succeeding. In fact, every person in this room will have some part in this. Even you, Len. Riddick, I am not asking you to love these people. I am not even asking you to like them. But you _will_ respect them, and you will accept the fact that this is one war you cannot win singlehandedly." With her speech over, Aereon folded her hands against her midriff in a prayer-like position and sat gently down in her seat again.

As usually happens after confusing events, awkward silence ensued. Saeko and Neriss were both fighting against smiles, Riddick was resisting the urge to bash Aereon over the head, Raven was wishing the floor would open and swallow her up, and Len was the one who was truly confused. Aereon held an almost-smile on her face until one of them caved. After a few minutes, Raven flung herself forward so that her entire upper body was leaning on the table in an exhausted stance.

"So what's this big mission anyways?" she asked, her voice revealing that she was waiting for the worst. Aereon's smile broke free onto her face.

"That mark on his chest is the Wrath of the Furyans. The symbol for all Furyans who still have the strength and the hatred to enact revenge upon the Necromongers for the massacre all those years ago." she answered. Raven let her head drop onto her arms, deciding to ignore the avoidance of her question for sanity's sake.

"But revenge is so poisonous. It can twist someone into a thing so darkened by the bitterness that they can't even recognize themselves." she muttered. Aereon nodded.

"Exactly why I am here. Revenge is a natural human instinct; its part of what has kept us alive for so long. But without some peace of mind, some little spark of hope and logic to walk hand-in-hand with it... That is when revenge becomes dark and destructive.

"At first, I believed that if the Wrath could kill the Lord Marshall, the trouble would be over. After all, history has shown that when the leader of a religion dies and does not name a definitive successor, all chaos erupts. But you did not kill Lord Marshall with the Wrath, Riddick, you murdered him with your own hand, thus naming yourself the successor. For a moment I experienced a rare moment of panic, where I thought 'That's it. We've lost'. Then I remembered that the Furyans, though a warrior people, were also rather superstitious, and had many prophecies. The one of you, Riddick, was one of the lasts made before the slaughter. But centuries before then, there was a prophecy about the Light of Furya. That when the hatred and animosities of a race grew too strong to ignore, a Light worthy of 1000 suns aligned with that insane, burning hatred would arrive, and the people who were wronged would be avenged and the people who did the wronging would be condemned.

"Now, Light cannot shine out of nowhere. It must be made, created by combining two opposite factors to make one whole. This is where you, Raven, become so vital to the plan. Do you remember your sister?"

"Why the hell does she always get dragged into things? Yes, of course I remember my sister!" Raven hissed in aggravation under her breath before responding to Aereon's question in an angrily raised voice.

"Then you remember that, in the words of those around you, she was the strong one. The one who always defended you and the one who could hold her own against all adversaries, even your parents. And you were considered the smart and clever one. Your sister had the guts to run away, but you had the brains to map it all out. Strength and Intelligence. Divided they cannot last long, but together, along with the Rage of a people wishing to see their destroyers destroyed in return... Well, they are near indestructible."

"What are you getting at?" Len asked. Aereon glanced at him, and for the moment before she rose importantly to her feet the slightest hint of a smile played across her face.

"It is time to bring her back, Riddick. You have had your time to mourn her, but now you must ask yourself: Will you be able to face her again?" she said. In an air of shock, Raven and Riddick both looked incredulously at one another. Raven was wondering if the woman had lost her mind. Surely, no one could come back from the dead. It just wasn't scientifically possible!

Riddick, however, smiled and released a laugh. He looked with a smile to Aereon.

"Lady, I've been facing her everyday. She's just got another name and another face. But, lemme get this straight. You want me to go back to the Necromongers, become their King, and use my position to get access into the Underverse to find her and bring her back to this world?" he asked. Aereon shrugged.

"That's one way. But, understanding your character, Riddick, I presumed you would prefer a more... 'showy' entrance. So no, I don't want you to reclaim your title as King. I am planning on giving you a guide, someone who knows the Necropolis well and can lead you safely to the gate into the Underverse." she corrected him primly. Riddick looked at Raven and then back to Aereon.

"And who's this miracle guide, exactly? A mole you've got on the inside?" he asked. Aereon smiled slyly.

"Not quite. Dana, you can come in now." she turned without warning towards the front door, her clothes fluttering lightly in a taut and excited breeze. Everyone's heads snapped around to face the same direction, some of them turning so fast they had muscle pangs and clapped hands over their necks.

There was no response at first, but after a courage-gathering moment the woman on the other side of the door slowly pushed it open with her hand. She had her face covered by a purple cloak, her head bent low and the cloak wrapped tight around her. It was quite obvious that she did not want to be recognized.

"Come in a little farther, dear. You're in no danger while I am here." Aereon cajoled her with a motherly tone. Riddick fought against a scoff at her last words as the woman took several anxious steps closer to them. Aereon then prodded her to reveal her face, and at first the woman flatly refused with a quick and violent shake of her head. Soon, though the Air Elemental persuaded the woman to remove her hood.

There were mixed responses in the room. Riddick shot to his feet and raised both shivs in a preparation to drive them straight through her black heart, Aereon smiled contently, Len lunged across the table to restrain Riddick, and Raven rushed towards the older woman and threw her arms around her in a hug.

"I can't believe it, Dana," she squealed through laughter, "I thought you were dead! The Necromongers took you, and we all thought you were dead!"

"She _is_ dead!" Riddick shouted, taking a threatening step forward. Raven turned on him and stood protectively in front of the woman she viewed as a mother.

"If you wanna touch her, you'll have to come through me!" she screamed. Riddick snarled.

"You don't understand Rae! Look at her neck; the Necromonger markings. She converted, Rae, she's one of them! She's not that woman who took care of you when you twelve anymore. She's a Necro bitch, and her name's Dame Vaako!"

_Hope I'm keeping you all interested. This is totally different than my original storyline, but you know: changes had to be made to avoid copyright and plagirism issues. Please, take some time to live a comment or a flame, no matter how short/ long/ rude it is._


	17. Chapter 16

_God, it's been over a month since my last installment. I just got so caught up with school and training for both my martial arts and Wiccan life and other things that I entirely forgot about Raven's Wing (ML slaps herself)! Sorry, people, and I sincerely hope you enjoy this chapter._

_**Two Days Later**_

"You have your own private ship?" Riddick asked with a raised eyebrow as his companions piled on. Lajjun smiled sadly, pulling bright-eyed Ziza closer to her.

"My husband may have been a holy man, but that doesn't mean we refused little luxuries. Imam loved that ship, so much so that he bought it and named it after Ziza the day she was born. It was one of those fits of joy new fathers go into." Lajjun replied, gazing up with misty, loving eyes at the large vessel. Riddick saw her blink back some tears, and feeling awkward he turned his head away to watch Raven and Saeko arguing in an odd way; Raven was inside and Saeko was outside, and they were shouting at each other through the window.

"You know, we can just borrow one. There's a dock just a couple blocks away. Only guarded by two men at night. It'd be no problem for me." he said. Lajjun shook her head violently at him, determination shining in her eyes now instead of remorse.

"No, definitely not. I won't allow it. Your mission is too important to be carried out on a stolen ship. And besides... I know my husband would've wanted you to use his. Believe it or not, Riddick, he cared for you." she replied, her voice at first hard and determined but softening when she mentioned Imam again. Riddick laughed a little at her words.

"Yeah, I'm sure he just loved me. Practically left him to die on M6-117 and then got him killed on his own planet." he spoke, obviously sarcastic.

"He cared enough about you to make sure our Ziza knew you as a hero, and not a convict. If that isn't friendship, I don't know what is." she said, interrupting him with the kind of strength and devotion he had only known to come from a wife. Riddick decided not to say anything in reply to that, instead turning his head again to watch Aereon overseeing the delivery of supplies they would need for the trip.

"Anyway," Lajjun broke the silence, shaking her head a little as a tear trickled down her cheek and propping Ziza up on her hip, "You should really start heading out now. The sooner you can leave the sooner you'll be able to track the Necromongers and get... get her back." Her voice trailed off as she mentioned their current goal, and Riddick mentally thanked her for that. He could barely get his own head around it; he hadn't even asked Raven or the others how they felt. Hearing Lajjun's view probably would've been too much for him. Riddick turned fully away from her this time, hastening off towards the doors.

"Okay, people, let's pack it up and move it out! We've got a lot of ground to cover, even more shit to do, and no time to do it in." he hollered at the people around him. They all nodded and refocused their attention fully to their tasks, Raven and Saeko glaring at each other one final time before going separate ways. In a flash, everything was done, and Len was waving at Riddick through the window to tell him they were about to take off. Riddick nodded his head at him and turned once more back to Lajjun. She was an image of haggard beauty, with her dark skin and black eyes. Her daughter was sure to be the same one day, but as of now she was still glowing with the innocence of most children.

"Mr. Riddick," she suddenly called out, squirming out of her mother's arms and trotting over to him. She dug around in the folds of her burnt-orange sari for a few seconds before pulling out the pendant that had once belonged to her father, and the one that Riddick had been so careful to return her.

"I think my daddy would've wanted you to have this. He said it gave him courage to speak to the people, so I think maybe it'll help you fight." she muttered, holding it out to him. Lajjun hissed a question at her, asking where she'd found that, but Riddick was too surprised to do anything but accept it from her. He felt the weight of it in his palm and the warmth it still had from her body, and with a sigh he shook his head.

"I don't think so, Ziza," he replied, slipping it back over her head, "Your old man probably would've wanted me to have it, but I think it belongs with you and your mother. Take care of it, okay?" The little girl gave him a gap-toothed smile as she nodded shyly, turning and skipping back towards her teary-eyed mother. Riddick made eye contact with her but he held up his hand, stopping anything she may have had in mind to say before turning and escaping into the closing door of the ship. The first thing he saw was the smirking green eyes of Raven.

"Is that a tear I see, Rich-" Her comment was cut off by a huge hand suddenly wrapped around her throat. Riddick bent down low to glare at her through his goggles, feeling intense agitation when she continued smiling. She knew he wouldn't hurt her, no matter what she said to him; the damn girl had him figured out.

"Who the hell told you my first name?" he hissed, letting go of her roughly. Raven massaged her neck gingerly, jerking her head of curling black hair at Aereon.

"Take a wild guess." Riddick looked over at the Elemental, and with a growl he pushed Raven aside and stormed over to where she was sitting by a window, watching as the ship geared up to take-off.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" he hissed at her, shoving the glass of wine she had been sipping off the table and crashing to the floor, "Where do you get off telling her my name?" Aereon blinked at her now shattered glass of red wine before looking calmly up at him.

"She and I have talked over these past few days, Riddick, and I must say I was astonished at how little she actually knew of you. Given, she knows about your record as a murderer, what happened between you and Carolyn Fry on M6-117, and how everyone closely associated with you has a nasty habit of dying, but her knowledge of you as a person, as a _man_, is abnormally limited. So, I took it upon myself to inform her." she replied. Riddick saw red at her placidity.

"You had no fucking right to tell her anything!" he shouted into her face. Aereon grew angered at that, a strong breeze that affected no one else making her cloak billow as she stood to her full height.

"And you had a right to lead her along blindly to her death? You know as well as I, Riddick, that we all may very well die on this little adventure, but she decided to stay and so I thought she deserved to know the full story!"

"Who are you to decide whether or not she should know anything?! You're not her goddamn mother, Aereon. Did she even ask you to tell her, or did you just barge in with your frickin' assumptions as usual?"

"Can I say something?" Raven burst in, stepping shyly forward. Both Riddick and Aereon glared at her.

"No!" they chorused.

"Oh, what does it matter?" Aereon suddenly muttered, throwing up her hands and fluttering away. She did pause by the door on her way out, however, and looked over her shoulder at a still fuming Riddick as the ship lifted off the ground and began to creep forward down the runway.

"Just understand, Richard B. Riddick, that one day she will no longer need you to keep her standing, and when she leaves you will wish more than anything that you had told her everything. Exactly as you did with Kyra." With that said she left, and Riddick punched the wall in frustration and anger at his defeat. Raven stood quietly by, debating in her head whether or not to leave, and a thin hand on her shoulder helped her decide.

"I suspect it would be best if you left." Dana whispered, tugging her backwards. Raven nodded and turned, hurrying off with her down the hallway and into her room.

Raven walked over towards the bed, her arms folded across her stomach as Dana leaned back against the door. The two women looked at each other for a few seconds before the older of them smiled awkwardly.

"We've barely spent any time together since I came back." she whispered.

"I know," Raven responded, "Aereon has kept me busy. She's been telling me everything, and then some, about Riddick and... and what we will have to do." Dana nodded, looking down to the floor.

"Has she told you about what happened to me? Where I've been all these years?" she mumbled. Raven paused and then shook her head.

"She said she thought I should hear that from you."

"She was right. So," Dana looked back up to the younger woman, fighting hard against a smile as she locked the door behind her without Raven noticing, "Are you ready?"

_Sorry for the cliffy, but I promised a friend I'd go out with her tonight to have some stress-relieving fun (and scope out guys). Please read and review!_


	18. Chapter 17

_I wanted to give a quick shout-out to the people who's frequent reviews have kept me going: Starnyx, midnightsprite, NotAfraidToLive, and a special one to Katty Noir, whose newest story is coming along wonderfully. Read her's if you have the time, it's very intriguing!!_

_OK, enjoy!_

Dana walked forward and sat on the bed, patting the light blue blanket as a signal for Raven to join her. The younger woman smiled shyly and then obeyed, sitting down next to the only mother she'd ever known and resting her head against her shoulder.

"When we were evacuating from Nebulas 4, I tried to keep you near me. I had lost everything before in my life, just like you had, and I couldn't have borne it if I lost you, too. You're like my daughter, Raven," Dana took the younger woman's face in her hands and stroked her cheeks lovingly, kissing her forehead before pulling her into a tight hug that the girl replied hungrily to. Dana ran her hands over her thick, curling black hair and sniffed back some tears that she was surprised to find were genuine.

"Then why did you disappear like that?" Raven gasped out, and Dana froze for a second when she realized the girl was crying.

"I- I don't know, baby. Everyone was panicking and there was so much noise. People started to push and shove each other to get to the emergency ships, and your hand slipped out of mine, and no matter how hard I tried and tried and tried I couldn't find you again. I thought maybe you went back to our room out of fear, so I turned around and headed back to find you. I guess you were already on one of the ships by that time, though." Raven nodded against her shoulder. Dana laid her own head atop the girl's.

"As you know, it wasn't long before the Necromongers got to me. I fought them, Raven, you have to believe me. But there were just too many of them, and then they told me about the conversion process. They told me that, if I converted, the emotional pain would be replaced by a physical one, and then after a time even that would numb out. I thought carefully about it and thought that, if I could clear my head of all the hurting, then maybe I could focus enough to escape and go after you. But I was wrong. It didn't clear my head. Slowly I forgot about you, and the rebels and everything we had stood for. I started to desire power and control more than freedom, and I was determined to get it anyway possible.

"You must understand, Raven," she sniffed loudly, leaning back and tearing up all over again when the younger woman raised her head, her green eyes boring straight into her, "You must understand that I was not myself. I was brainwashed, literally. If I had had any inkling of what I was doing, I would've stopped right then! But I didn't know. I had people murdered, Raven, some of them I poisoned myself. I… I… I even watched as your sister died. I hadn't known who she was until after, but watching her for the little time she was one of us had reminded of you in some way, and when she died, I was screaming because of that. Not because my husband had lost his chance at the throne, but because I suddenly remembered you and felt all the pain I had avoided for so many years come crashing back all at once." Dana looked desperately into the woman's eyes, begging her to believe her and almost laughing when she saw that she did.

"You… You watched Kyra die?" Raven stumbled out. Dana blinked, looked away, but then forced her dark eyes back to look at the young woman, and she nodded. Raven blinked and looked away herself before shrugging off Dana's arms and walked a few steps away.

"Raven, I didn't know it was her! If I had, believe me when I say I would've thrown myself behind her to take the fatal blow, but I didn't know!" Dana jumped up and put her thin hands on Raven, one of them gripping her shoulder and the other running over her black hair. A few moments of tense silence ensued before Raven turned slowly back around to face her. Her eyes did not hold immediate revulsion, but Dana could see it simmering under the curiosity and hinting suspicion that glowed out of her green eyes. The older woman swallowed hard.

"Was she treated well among the Necromongers? I mean, other than the conversion process?" Raven asked, and Dana realized what she was concerned about. She only wanted to know if Kyra's time as a Necromonger had been peaceful and comfortable. Dana could understand why; both of their lives had been so unstable and insecure. If it had been her own sister, Dana would've wanted to know the same thing. She smiled softly.

"She was. The others treated her with the utmost respect, mostly because… because," Dana sighed a heavy sigh, preparing for the revelation of the truth, "She was made a Breeder, Raven.

"You see, with the conversion process, you are sterilized. It's a side effect on the body, and it's why they keep taking in converts. It's rare that a woman or a man is deemed worthy to go through the special conversion process, the one that allows them to maintain their ability to reproduce. They chose your sister because of her outstanding endurance to pain and her physical capabilities. Usually Breeder's aren't married, but taken as lovers for other people. You know, regular Necromongers that want a child." Dana cut herself off before she could go any farther. She knew she would have to explain in full, she only hoped maybe it could be held off.

She cursed Raven's insatiable thirst to know and understand.

"Who was Kyra taken by?" she asked cautiously, fearing the answer. Dana licked her lips.

"The Lord Marshal. He was under so much pressure to name a successor to the throne, but he didn't think anyone was good enough, not even his second-in-command Lord Vaako, my husband. So, the only other alternative was to father a child. He saw Kyra, a Breeder, and he was a Breeder himself, and so he took her as his mistress. She went willingly, Raven, no one forces another to do anything. Not in Necromonger society. However, it was not long before Riddick found us again. I doubt she became pregnant by that time."

Raven was silent, her eyes alive with rage and betrayal, and Dana didn't blame her.

She was a betrayer herself, to the rebels, the Necromongers, and the girl she saw as her daughter. That last one hurt more than anything before in her life, but Dana had to do this. Raven would never forgive her for it, but it was for the greater good.

Slowly, Dana reached her hand around and gripped the younger girl's neck. At first it seemed like a comforting gesture, but when her grip began to tighten Raven's brow furrowed in confusion. Her fingers curled tighter and tighter, her manicured nails digging into the sensitive flesh.

"Dana what are you doing?" Raven asked before gasping in pain and trying to squirm away. Dana could feel her heart pounding in her chest and her head, so loud that she could barely hear the girl, "Dana, you're hurting me! Stop it!" Before she could scream any louder, Dana turned the girl's neck just so. There was a crack, and Raven fell to the floor in a heap, her eyes staring blankly out ahead of her.

All was silent. Dana stood and stared down at what she'd done. No, Raven was not dead; she could see the pulse beating faintly in her neck and her chest lifting ever so slightly with breath. She had merely stunned her, aggravated the pressure points in her neck so that they locked her body up and made it appear that she was dead.

A loud crackle of static in her ear made Dana jump and slap a hand over her ear, lowering the volume on the hidden microphone. Her husband's voice soon came drifting out.

"Is the mission completed?" he asked hurriedly. Dana licked her lips.

"It is done. You can move in now." She replied stiffly.

"You have done the Necromonger regime a great honor, my wife. I can't wait until you return to us." There was a smile in his voice before he cut off their connection, and Dana wasted not a second in ripping the damned earpiece out and throwing it as far as she could from her, screaming as it flew from her hand before falling to her knees.

She gathered Raven in her arms and clutched her to her, beginning to sob out tears she'd held in for far too long.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, kissing the girl's cheek gently, "I'm so, so sorry, baby girl."

…

"Aren't you gonna go talk to her?" Len asked, leaning against the doorframe with his muscular yet slim arms crossed over his chest. The bald man with the threatening black goggles continued to stand unmoving in front of the wide window with his own arms crossed as he stared out at the black universe in front of them.

"Talk to who?" he replied uncaringly.

"You know who," Len said back, "Raven."

"What do you care?"

"I don't, but I'm sure she does. I've noticed, Riddick, and so have Saeko and Neriss, that she loves you." He spoke with a little disappointment in his voice, thinking about how she was rather attractive and the few talks they had had were enjoyable. Len watched as Riddick's shoulders tensed unconsciously at the observation, wondering a little bitterly what was so great about this guy.

"Whether she's stupid enough for that to be true or not, it's not your business to tell me what to do." Riddick said calmly. The younger man tightened his jaw and began to breathe heavily through his nose in aggravation.

"Look, I'm not telling you anything. I'm making a friendly suggestion that might just save your relationship with her." Riddick snapped around and gripped his shiv in a tight fist, fully prepared to use it on the younger man.

"You don't know her or me nearly well enough to make a decision about what might ruin our relationship, so why don't you just shut your mouth and go play somewhere far away from me!" Riddick's low growl slowly elevated into a near-holler as he pushed past the other man out of the room, stalking off down the hallway.

His combat boots clanged heavily on the floor as he stormed off, and within a few minutes, without realizing it, he stopped outside of a door he recognized as the one he had assigned to Raven.

It was spacious, with a nice view that he knew she would enjoy. Sighing forcefully through his nose, Riddick leaned his arm against the door and then supported his forehead on it, letting his body weight rest on them. After letting her witness that spat between him and Aereon, and then turning his anger on her, she might slam the door in his face. However, she was currently the only one who he knew wouldn't be afraid of him and would let him cool down without getting angered at him in return. He felt the urge to break that other man in half for being right.

Standing back up, Riddick cracked his neck and ran a hand over his head before punching in the entrance code to her room with his thumb. The number pad blinked green a couple times before the door slid open and he walked into the darkened room.

Riddick instantly thanked God that he had his eyeshine, because if he hadn't then he never would've seen the body lying unmoving on the floor or the lead pipe that came out of nowhere towards his face.

He caught the pipe in his fist and jerked it out of his attacker's hands, throwing it away into the darkness. He managed a few steps farther into the room before the person, a woman with a slight, thin frame, literally jumped on his back and tried to strangle him from behind. She was succeeding, too, but Riddick managed to grip her thin arms in his big hands and throw her off of him by flipping her over his back.

He watched her fly through the air and land on her side on the bed. She was still for a few moments, dazed, and Riddick took the opportunity to see who was on the floor. He could tell immediately from the way her hair fell over her shoulders, but he couldn't take it for true until he saw her face. Grabbing her, he turned Raven over so she was facing him, her green eyes blank and her skin going cold.

But she wasn't dead. Riddick could hear her heart beating ever so weakly, and she still smelled of life.

He was still pissed fucking off! When Dame Vaako stirred on the bed, Riddick pounced on her. He grabbed her by her neatly done-up hair and jerked her to the ground, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her up off her feet. She wrapped her bony hands around his muscled wrist, whimpering as she tried to pull him off. Riddick, about five seconds from tearing her in half, ripped off his goggles and let her see his silvery eyes up close. She paused.

"What the fuck did you do, bitch?" he growled dangerously, sounding like a bear or a lion about to attack its prey. Dame Vaako said nothing.

"I said what the fuck did you do to her?!" This time he screamed it at her, his grip tightening so that, even in the darkness, he could see the paleness in her dark skin. She parted her lips as if to answer, but someone suddenly kicking through the door distracted him. While his eyes strayed from her, Dame Vaako took the opportunity to bite him hard, which resulted in another swear and him letting her go. She fell to the floor but then ran over to the masked, armed men standing in the doorway. Riddick raised both of his shivs and stepped protectively over Raven. Glaring all those people straight to hell.

One of the men, the one whose arm Dame Vaako wrapped her hands around, lifted off his mask and revealed himself to be Lord Vaako. Looking dead into Riddick's eyes, he grinned.

"Shoot him." He commanded before turning with his wife and walking out of sight. Riddick screamed furiously at them, and even when the guns raised and the first of the shots fired, he kept running after them. It was only after the firing stopped and he found himself lying helplessly on the ground beside Raven that he realized something had been different…

Dame Vaako's eyes. The first time Riddick had seen them, they had been dark and cold and tunnel-like, empty of all emotion yet reaching deep into her mind. But not now. Now, they shone. Almost as if she knew something or had just stopped crying…

And then it all went black.

_Reviews, pretty please!_


	19. Chapter 18

_Sorry this has taken sooo long, but school and friends took priority. A lot of tests, a lot of essays, a lot of crises, a lot of drama... you get it. Ah, life as a young adult: you gotta love it, right? Anyway, here's the next chapter. I've decided that this'll be split into a 2-part story, so the end of this part is coming to a close._

_Enjoy it!_

He could hear her wailing in the throes of unconsciousness as pain ripped through her. Assuming that they had treated her the same as him, she was hanging by her wrists three feet off the ground in metal shackles that had spikes poking into the sensitive flesh of her wrists that sent shocks into her every time she jerked at the bonds. At least he was aware enough to control himself so he moved as little as possible, but it sounded as though Raven was still out. She wasn't able to control her body, so every time she twitched the spikes dug in deeper and she was punished with an electric jolt.

She cried out again, this time more high-pitched and with a strangled sob in her voice. Len rolled his head over to rest against his right shoulder, grimacing as her fading voice suddenly jumped back with a yelp of pure pain.

How could anyone be so cruel, he mused to himself? Of course he'd heard of the Necromongers' policy of convert or die, but he'd never really entertained the thought of them torturing captives. 

Len's eyes closed when another scream hit his ears, though this time it was a different person. The Fire Elemental, no doubt furious at waking up confined in such an inhumane manner. Her screams mixed with Raven's to make one primal sound that made him shiver. He winced at the shocks passing through his body, though it had happened so often now that he was almost numb to it. 

As the two women shrieked again, Len silently prayed that an electrical signal would misfire and shock them both so bad that Saeko would simply slip back into unconsciousness and Raven... 

It was terrible, but he hoped she would just die. He, the Elementals, and definitely Riddick could take this torture and the deaths they would suffer when they all refused to convert, but Len wanted her to be spared that fate.

"Who said anything about converting you?"

Len's head snapped up and his eyes flew wide, adrenaline suddenly rushing to his head when the female voice echoed throughout his cramped, damp cell. He could barely make out her silhouette in the dim lighting from the outside hall and the pitch black of his cell, but just from her voice he could tell it was the woman who had turned them over to the Necromongers.

"Those shackles also help us monitor your brainwaves, which we can use to get a rough map of your thoughts. So believe me when I say that I have no intention of converting you." she said calmly, stepping farther into the cell and looking up at him. Even in the suffocating darkness, her eyes shone. Len couldn't help but gaze back at her.

"Listen," she spoke again, her voice suddenly low and rushed, "You have to believe me, Len. I did not want to hurt any of you, especially Raven. But if I hadn't tricked you into the Necromonger path, you would never have been able to bring the woman back."

"Stop bullshitting me!" Len fired back, his voice revealing all the hostility he felt towards her, "I know that Riddick's your true king. All he had to do is claim the throne and we'd be able to complete the mission." Dame Vaako shook her head vigorously.

"No, no, he couldn't have! If anything, it would've got him killed right away. The Necromonger regime is crumbling from the inside since we have no legal heir. It's become dog-eat-dog, now, so the second he appeared some young hopeful would've slashed him from behind. This was the only way to get you all here safely." Len considered her words.

"So you think I'll just believe you again and trust you unconditionally?" he spat. She shook her head sadly.

"No, Len, I don't. Knowing what I do of your past, I'm surprised you didn't question my sudden arrival in the first place. All I am asking now is that you give me another chance." Len's gray eyes narrowed.

"Why, so you can lead us to the chopping block?" he hissed at her. Dame Vaako sighed and gestured to the still open door behind her.

"If I was leading you to your deaths would I have released him first?" she responded. Len looked to the open door and his jaw dropped when Riddick entered. He was free of restraints and had his two shivs gripped tight. Len looked disbelievingly from Riddick to her several times before he sighed through his nose and asked her to let him down.

She did so and he fell limply to the ground, groaning loudly at the aching in his shoulders and the downright agony pounding with every heartbeat into his wrists. She rushed forward and gently bandaged his wounds, helping him back to his feet before Riddick shoved a gun into his hands.

"Don't miss." he commanded bluntly before turning on his heel and leading them out of the cell.

Len breathed in deeply once they were in the hallway. The cell had reeked of rot and death, and though the lighting in the hall was minimal it was a huge relief from where he'd just been.

They went to the very next cell, Dame Vaako pressing her palm against the electronic key to gain entry. When the pad flashed green and the door slid open, Riddick literally shoved her out of his way and rushed inside. When he followed at a slower pace, Len saw Raven hanging lifelessly on the wall. Her chest was heaving in dry sobs and her wild green eyes showed that she had finally awoken.

Dame Vaako wasted no time in punching in the code to release her. Riddick caught her in his arms when she fell, cradling her against his chest as he gently laid her down on the cold concrete floor. 

She whispered his name, and Len blinked when he saw Riddick take her hand and squeeze it reassuringly as Dame Vaako began to bandage her wrists as she had done with him. Raven gave the older woman a hurt, broken look while she worked on her until she stepped away, at which point Riddick dragged her back to her feet and held her securely until she assured him that she could stand on her own.

Even as they jogged off to free the Elementals, Riddick and Raven stayed close to each other and a cold air surrounded the Dame Vaako. The sibling Elementals remained side by as the enigmatic older woman led their group through twisting hallways and up flights of metal stairs. Len was caught in between the groups, drifting between being closer to Raven and Riddick and closer to Dame Vaako. He felt awkward either way, not to mention the jealousy and anger roiling right underneath the surface. 

It remained an uncomfortable run until they broke from the underbelly of the ship and found themselves racing through the Necropolis. The cavernous hall echoed the sound of their frantic footsteps. Everyone was asleep and so all lights were out, save for one large one that hung directly in the center of the room, though even that was dimmed.

"This way, hurry!" Dame Vaako gasped, leading them around the spiked throne and to a door hidden in the deep shadows.

"This is it," she gasped, breathlessly running her hands over the door surface, "The room to the Underverse." Looking at them all, her onyx eyes wide with some unnamed emotion, she charged through it and led them into a cramped room with an elevated circle platform.

"Not very well hidden," Saeko commented, crossing her arms and looking around, "Or decorative."

"It hasn't been used in years, not since the Lord Marhsal began all of this. He built his throne on top of it for a reason; no one but him and those summoned up are allowed to touch it. If anyone had gotten close enough to discover this door, they'd be killed before they could even question what it was." 

She explained quickly before going over to a small control desk, peering down at the keyboard and all the levers and mumbling to herself. The others had no time to wonder what she was doing before the sound of tramping feet and shouting echoed into the small room.

Dame Vaako and Riddick swore at the same time. She rushed to the door and opened it again, revealing the charging soldiers headed by her husband. Raven saw his look of disbelief when he saw her standing there, so shocked that he brought his forces to a dead halt.

Dame Vaako slammed the door closed and locked it, a meager attempt to buy them a second's worth of time.

"Get up there, now!" she hollered, pushing Raven and Riddick towards it. Raven stumbled up, looking around wildly. The dark-skinned woman was back at the control board, punching in combinations and codes that took a lifetime to take effect.

The platform began to vibrate as Saeko and Neriss suddenly grabbed Len and disappeared in a burst of red and blue light. Raven clutched Riddick's arm as the shaking intensified, making her teeth chatter and her vision go blurry. She could barely hear the shouting and stomping, barely see Dana crying desperately as an electric shield suddenly surrounded her and Riddick.

Looking down at her hands, Raven released a scream of her own when she saw herself turning into a mass of colored particles. The same happened to Riddick, making him look at her with his lips parted slightly as though wanting to speak but not knowing what to say.

Then Lord Vaako burst into the room, followed by his soldiers. His face melted into bewilderment and then exploded in rage when he saw that Raven and Riddick were already too far gone to bring back. The last thing Raven saw before she felt her body implode on itself and she and Riddick disappeared was Vaako backhanding his wife onto the ground. She didn't even have time to call out that she forgave her.

"How could you do this?" Lord Vaako screamed at his wife, not even noticing that his captives had all escaped. His wife raised her head, her tightly done hair now falling around her shoulders, freed from the force of the blow.

"Because, my husband," she replied, rising to her feet and taking out the gun she'd had hidden and aiming it to her chest, "We all start out as something else."

And with one smile, Dame Vaako joyfully became Dana one more time, holding 12-year-old Raven in her arms and floating away with her.


	20. Chapter 19

_Here's one of the last chapters of this part of my full fic. Only got about two, maybe three more, and then it's done and we move onto Part II. I'm sooooooooooo excited!!_

_Enjoy, and please leave a comment if you would be so kind _

They fell, tumbling head over heels downward in a sea of foggy blackness before crashing to a halt, landing hard several feet away from each other.

Riddick gritted his teeth, relaxing the rest of his muscles at impact to reduce the amount of damage done. He heard Raven cry out in pain, no doubt breaking something, but he didn't have time to be worried and so he stood, pushed back his goggles, walked over to her and dragged her back to her feet.

"Riddick, c'mon, can't we rest for just a minute?" she groaned, testing both her feet gingerly. He simply turned and stalked off into the thick, congested darkness. Raven rolled her eyes and started mumbling many curses upon his person under her breath, but she followed.

"Are- Are we really in the Necroverse?" she asked upon catching up. Riddick didn't slow down.

"It's _Under_verse, and yes, we are."

"I don't… I don't see anyone." she continued. Riddick paused before answering.

"You wouldn't."

Raven lowered her intense green eyes, limping a little alongside him and pressing her chapped lips together to keep herself from saying anything more. There was a strong wind howling around them, forcing her sweaty black hair back and making their clothes flutter as they walked against it. It carried the sound of Riddick's voice faintly to her ears; he was counting in time with his heavy steps.

A millennium's worth of seconds seemed to pass before something changed. They were walking as quickly as they could without running, when a hand suddenly closed around her shoulder.

She gasped, grabbed into Riddick's shirt, and then flew through a swirl of movement as Riddick lifted her around the waist and plopped her down on her feet behind him. She looked up and saw his strong hand gripped on the shoulder of a gray-skinned, empty-eyed old man with thin wisps of colorless hair. One of his shivs was pressed against the man's throat, but his eyes focused on her.

"Mine… my beautiful Breeder… in this Underverse…" Raven tried and failed to swallow the ball growing in her throat. Riddick's own silver-shined eyes glanced at her over his shoulder, his eyebrows contracted and his fingers tightening uncertainly around the hilt of the shiv.

"You… too young to be here… I had so- so hoped you would not join me here for… many years…" The man extended one bony hand out to her, his fingers twitching at her 

as though longing to brush against her skin. Raven drew back on instinct, her lips curling downward.

"I- I-" She opened her mouth to respond somehow, but Riddick growled at her to say nothing. She obeyed, slamming her lips together and alternating her focus from him to the corpse of a man in front of them.

His dead eyes seemed lit for the first time in God knew how long, trained obsessively on her as though she was the only thing keeping him from crumbling into dust right there.

"Child… heir… did you, before… please, you must've…"

His words made Raven fail against suppressing a chilling shiver and caused Riddick's hold to tighten so much that the man finally turned his eyes to him. The light dimmed and she thought she saw just a hint of sanity come back.

"Who…?" he breathed out before pure fire leapt into his very being, "The Furyan… The Riddick… Kill the Riddick. Kill the Riddick! Kill! Kill the Riddick!"

The man in question released him so fast that he simply collapsed on the ground, his one hand still clawing out for them even as Riddick pushed her forward at a run. Raven knew Riddick was still counting, and over her thudding heartbeat she could hear the man screeching desperately for her to 'kill the Riddick'.

She had no opportunity to question who the man had been, though Raven felt she already knew; the Lord Marshall, fully dead after all those years of half-sanity and half-life. Raven shook her head to stop the rest of the realization hitting, not wanting to admit the rest of it to herself. Instead she just quickened her pace to keep up with Riddick.

"You know what that was about." he commented. Raven swallowed had, licked her lips, and nodded, her eyebrows contracting a little. He said nothing else to her, but he did slow his pace a few moments after the shrieks from behind faded away into the somehow worse howling of the wind.

She started to feel the aching throbbing in her left ankle and her shoulder. No doubt she'd broken the first and probably badly bruised the later. But somehow it wasn't as bad as she'd thought it should be. It was there, but at the same time it… wasn't there.

Raven stopped dead when she realized she was giving into the power of the Underverse. The power that numbed all your senses, physical and emotional feelings and took away everything that made you human.

Riddick sensed her halt and stopped as well, turning to look at her.

"What?"



"I… I can feel it," she whispered, lifting one shaking hand to her throat, "It's happening to me, Riddick. I can feel it inside me!" He rushed over to her and gripped her by the shoulders, bending down and peering at her with his fierce silver eyes.

He could see that it was true. Her skin was turning ashen, and she was breaking into a cold sweat. Even her thick, shining black hair was starting to go lank. The very life was slipping right out of her.

"Raven," he shouted, shaking her a little and almost lifting her off her feet, "Raven, don't you dare give into it! You're stronger than that, you know you are! Fuck, Raven, you can't! Fight it, goddamn you, fight it!"

"I…I… I'm so tired, though…" she murmured. Her green eyes were starting to get a grey undertone. Riddick tightened his grip.

"Remember Kyra. Remember your sister - Your twin! She's somewhere here, Raven. She's close. She's here, Raven!" The woman in his arms shuddered, responding to his words.

Some color snuck back into her cheeks, but now she was shaking uncontrollably. Within moments, it was as if she was having a seizure. Riddick had to clutch her to his chest with both of his huge arms wrapped tight around her to keep her from flying from his hold.

"That's right, Rae," he grunted, "Fight it. You can beat this shit. So do it!"

And she did. After what seemed like forever, she released a high pitched, mewling whine and hung limp. He was panting himself, but at the same time he grinned down at her.

"That's my girl," he said quietly as she pushed against him to signal that she wanted to stand on her own. He released her and she looked up at him, awe and confusion and just a little bit of hope shining vivid and bright in her green eyes.

"That's my girl."

"Yeah. So… Let's go find _our_ girl." She grinned back before looking down, cautiously taking his hand, and then racing off with a new and unexpected vigor in a random direction that he didn't have the guts to criticize.

_Yeah, this was pretty much a filler-chapter, but it's still relatively important. It shows the extent of Raven's affect on Riddick and his on her, and it also, I think, gives a nice contrast between the darkness and desolation of the Necromonger way and how fallible it truly is._

_Again, please leave a review _


	21. Chapter 20

_Okay, I was SO off. I thought this wouldn't be up for a few weeks due to finals and stuff, but nope. I got hit with a sudden attack of inspriation and had to finish it tonight. So, here it is. Kinda long, but... this is the last chapter. Yup, this part of the full story is OVER! I feel sad, yet fulfilled all at the same time. Weird, huh? Anyway, hope you guys enjoy it!_

She yelped in pain, finally falling to the ground and clutching her ankle. Riddick halted and turned back, looking down on her with something resembling worry but not lowering to her side.

"Riddick, I can't." she gasped, curling her fingers into a fist and pressing it to her forehead. The man knelt down next to her at that, putting a heavy hand on her shoulder and shaking it a little. He pushed up his goggles so that when she looked up at him she was forced to meet his silver-shined eyes.

"You know better than that. Now, c'mon, get up." he said. She breathed out roughly and shook her head.

"No, I mean… I _can't_. My ankle is broken." At that, Riddick refocused his attention. He looked down and pulled up her pant legs, observing the ankle that was swollen purple and black. He sighed through his nose a little, knowing that she was entirely right. There was no way she could go on with that ankle.

"Yeah, it's broken alright." Raven groaned.

"What should we do? You can't leave me here but I can't keep going." Riddick looked from her to her ankle a few times before shaking his head. He muttered for her to brace herself.

"Wait, what?" Raven said, her eyes blinking wide. But she didn't even get the words out before she yelped as she suddenly found herself hanging upside down, her long, curling black hair falling off her neck and his thick shoulder pressing painfully into her abdomen.

She coughed a little at the pressure on her diaphragm, "Riddick, what are you doing?" He had her legs hooked around his arm so she wouldn't fall off. He didn't respond.

"You know, we've done this, like, five times already, and it's really starting to hurt." she said again, raising her head and looking around at the monotonous landscape behind them.

"Do you wanna walk?" he finally replied. She paused, blinked, then shut her mouth and let her head fall back down, resigned to his decision to keep her slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Over the time that passed (they had both stopped keeping track of the minutes long ago, though Raven knew Riddick was still keeping count of his steps) there were several times where Raven thought she heard someone crying in the distance. Of course, it could've just been the wind, but she thought sometimes she heard words, even names being screamed out into the void. Oh, and what a perfect description that was of this wasteland, she thought ruefully. Looking through her hair, she released a disgruntled laugh when she realized she couldn't even tell where the ground they were walking on was.

And then she heard a scream from, literally, right above her.

Riddick dropped her on the ground, stepped protectively over her, and raised his shivs in a defensive stance all within three seconds. Raven lifted her head and shook her hair out of her eyes, staring at the body lying limply in front of her. Riddick had one leg braced on either side of her, so when she tried pushing herself up on her arms he only had to shove one heavy combat boot down on her back and he got his message across: stay down, or I'll kill you.

"Jesus, Goliath, you wanna lay off for once?" she hissed up at him. He merely let loose a quiet 'shh'.

She obeyed, glaring up at him momentarily before refocusing her attention on the person who had apparently thrown themselves at them and missed by inches.

After a moment, they stirred. It was obviously a woman, her skin the same ashen color as the Lord Marshall's had been and her long dark hair just as limp and dull. Her torn and ripped clothing was black, fitting for a Necromonger bitch, Raven thought, her lips curling downwards as she watched the woman move slowly.

She was lying on her side, one thin arm splayed out above her head. That was the one to move first, her fingers twitching before it curled down at the elbow and was used to push herself up. She had her back to them, her ragged hair making her look like some wild creature. Raven watched her intently, waiting for any sudden movements or a hint that she was planning to attack. Riddick she could tell was doing the same thing, but something was different about him all of a sudden.

Realizing this, Raven blinked up at him for a split-second. She nearly let herself face-plant when she saw that he was different because his shivs were hanging limply at his sides. He found this woman to be no threat… or he had no confidence that he could beat her. Either one was like a death sentence to Raven.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?!" she gasped at him. Riddick instantly slammed his foot back down on her back, making her hiss in pain.

"Shut up!" he shot back. She turned her eyes quickly back to the woman. She was on her feet now, her back still to them. Her breathe was heavy and she had her hands clasped in front of her. She was muttering to herself as the Lord Marshall had done.

"Kill him. Kill the Riddick… Kill, kill, kill the Riddick. There is a power… a power… The power must die. Took me, wanted her, kill the Power." She stumbled backwards towards them, lowering one of her hands and revealing the shiv in her bony fingers. Blood was dripping from it and her wrist. Raven's breath stopped in her throat.

"Oh, my God." she whispered as the woman slowly turned around. She heard Riddick above her stop breathing himself for a few seconds.

She didn't even look like Kyra, like Jack, anymore. Her eyes were sunken and her cheekbones were heavily pronounced due to the extreme loss of weight she'd undergone. Her green eyes were grey underneath, her lips chapped and her bones clearly discernable underneath her skin. Raven looked her up and down, unable to believe it. Suddenly she squirmed out from underneath Riddick before he could make a move to stop her. He didn't make a sound, not even when she stepped closer to Kyra and raised a hand to her.

She paused for a second before laying it gently across her cheek, "Oh, Audrey. Jack, K- Kyra... whoever you are… It is you." She pressed her other hand over her mouth as hot tears suddenly forced their way up past her barricade and poured down her face.

"Oh, my God! How did this happen to you?" Raven grabbed her wrist and held it up, observing the many cuts going all the way up her arm to her elbow.

"What have you been doing to yourself?! Oh, God, Riddick, we have to get her out of here!" She made a move to pull Kyra towards them, but that seemed to snap the other woman out of her stupor.

She released a high-pitched, animalistic screech and flung Raven off of her, launching herself backwards and landing in a pouncing stance.

"You keep away! You cockroach, you parasite! I won't let you get me! Not this time, not ever again, and you can't have my sister either! She's with Riddick, and you'll never get her!" A crazy smile appeared on her face, turning it from a haggard sort of beauty to simply demonic-looking. Raven stared at her, her jaw hanging open.

"Kyra… I- I am your sister." The shadow of a woman in front of her released a high-pitched banshee laugh.

"My sister would never come here! You're a Necromonger whore, a mirage, a trick of my insanity!" Raven shook her head violently, the tears coming faster and her green eyes going wide in shock and horror.

"No, it really is me! Raven, Aria, your sister! Don't you remember? We ran away when we were twelve, before that we used to sing lullabies to each other at night to keep nightmares away." Riddick suddenly had his hands wrapped around her arms, and Raven realized she was straining against him towards Kyra.

"Kyra, you've just got to remember!" she was screaming over Kyra's insane laughter now, desperate to make herself heard, "We promised, Kyra, we would always protect each other! We swore on our blood. Dear God, you've just got to remember me!"

Finally Riddick intervened. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her around to face him.

"Stop it, Raven!" he shouted at her before his own voice lowered, going so quiet she could barely hear it, "She's not your sister. She's not our Kyra. Not anymore." Raven stubbornly shook her head.

"I won't believe that. Kyra's got to be in there somewhere, Riddick." The man glared at her, and she returned it.

"I'm her goddamn twin; I can feel her, Riddick, she's still alive!"

"Look at you, damn you! I mean, really look at her." he turned her back around and pointed a finger at Kyra. She was muttering to herself again, twirling her finger through one strand of her hair over and over again.

"Kyra's gone, Jack's gone, whatever you wanna call her. Either way, we're too late. She's just a shell now." Raven released a sob, burying her face in her hands as Riddick discreetly pushed his goggles back down over his eyes. He waited a minute before putting a hand on the small of her back and pushing her around a mumbling Kyra. Now she had her eyes closed and was tapping her fingertips against them.

"C'mon. Let's get out of here." he said gently. She sniffed and raised her head, giving Kyra one last long gaze before she hung her head and continued on numbly. She didn't even feel her stupid ankle anymore.

Riddick was counting again. The wind went on howling around them, and without having to look Raven knew Kyra had already disappeared behind them. She started limping after about ten or fifteen minutes, unable to go on ignoring her ankle. It seemed to take a lot shorter for Riddick to get back to zero than it did for him to count to where they… It seemed like a lot less time had passed.

"How are we supposed to get out?" she asked quietly. Her eyes were dry now, but her voice was monotonous and emotionless.

Riddick stood next to her with his muscular arms crossed over his chest, "Leave it to Aereon. She's got something planned to get us back. Just gotta wait a few minutes."

And they did. They stood in silence, Raven keeping all her weight on her good leg as she stared at the invisible ground they were standing on. She felt her stomach drop a little as she finally took in how much it looked like they were falling.

The wind kept howling. It got so loud that eventually it sounded like someone was screaming again… And like they were getting closer, and shouting out actual words.

Her head snapped up, hearing what she knew Riddick didn't yet. Was it possible? Did she even dare have a glimmer of hope that it could be? The outline of a person running appeared in the black fog around them, and Raven screamed joyfully.

She could've sworn Riddick was on the verge of fainting when Kyra, her eyes bright and her movements powerful and energetic, approached them. She had one hand clapped over the bleeding wounds on her wrist but she managed a sassy smile.

"Forgetting something, sis?"

_Sorry about the length, but I had to fit all of this into one chapter; otherwise, it just didn't feel right. So, this is the end of Part I. Part II will be up at some point, maybe tomorrow, maybe next month, I've stopped trying to predict. Hope you guys enjoyed this, and keep our eyes peeled for Part II. Hope to see you all there!!_


End file.
